Spring Lake Park Mayor election results in tie, winner to be chosen by lottery

The mayor of Spring Lake Park will be decided by blindly drawing a name from a bag. The two candidates got the exact same number of votes on Tuesday. And Fox 9's Emily Pofall is live there now. Emily, it may sound improbable, but this game of chance is actually something that is state law. Right, so state law says that in case of a tie, the winner is to be chosen by lot, which basically means by chance. So you guys, I'm not kidding. This could be a coin flip. This could be a dice roll. In this case, the city administrator says that they've chosen a random drawing. It sounds unreal, and it's the talk of the town here. In Spring Lake Park, there are about 7,000 people, two water towers, three barber shops. It's a little small city. And even after Election Day, still two possible mayors. Both of them get haircuts at Abbas Al-Malmani's barber shop. Each one of them have his own plan. To be honest, honestly, it's both really good. That's the issue now. An issue because incumbent Robert Nelson and challenger Halen Roth each received 1,401 votes. I knew this election was going to be close, but I didn't think it was going to be this close. It's up to city administrator Daniel Buchholz to break the tie. Whoever's name gets drawn out of the hat will be declared the winner. Believe it or not, he's following a state law that says a tie must be broken by random chance. Why not go with the coin flip? Part of the reason was is how do you assign heads, how do you assign tails. The drawing will happen at a Monday meeting of the city council. Anyone can attend. And after the draw, the losing candidate can request a city-funded recount. And we've gotten good response from the candidates that they recognize that this is statute and that this is the fairest way to determine a result. Almamani isn't convinced. It's not fair, not fair for the mayor, and not fair for the Spring Lake Park public. But he likes both candidates and supports the city. Everyone like work as a team. That's what I love about Spring Lake Park. We try and fly under the radar as much as we can. Under the radar no more, Buchholz wants the community involved. We hope people come and witness something historic here in Spring Lake Park. We reached out to both candidates. Roth says that if he loses the drawing Monday night, he will request a recount. Mayor Nelson hasn't responded to us yet, but if there is that potential recount, that's scheduled for November 17th at the Anoka County Courthouse. Randy, Kelsey. I'll see. Fun to watch. All right, and people are going to be watching. They're going to show up at that meeting to see what this is all about. Somebody's going to be a mayor. Yeah. We just don't know who yet, right? Thanks, Emily.