MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ) -- A Metro Detroit-area school board race was too close to call, so it was decided by a flip of a coin and the luck of the draw.
Mount Clemens Community Schools school board candidates Rashidah Hammond and Alex Bronson each received the exact same number of votes in the Nov. 5 election.
"When the overseas votes came in, and the cure votes, they both picked up an extra vote. So, even through the canvass we couldn't break the tie," said Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini. "And, you know, it's a little unusual"
The legal state-mandated tiebreaker called for the candidates to draw from folded up pieces of paper that said "elected" or "not elected."
Hammond won the coin toss, picked first, and won the election, Forlini said.
Forlini believes it was a fair way to pick the winner.
"What better way than take a 50-50 chance as to whether you're gonna win or lose, and it's the most cost-effective way," Forlini said. "Everyone's talking about runoffs, there's people who said we should have a runoff election — way to expensive for this type of a thing."
"And both left, for the most part, happy with the process. I mean, they were both happy with the process," he said. "Of course, Alex, I'm sure, wishes it would've went the other way. But they were both good at the beginning, and at the end."
Forlini said the last coin toss tiebreaker in Macomb County was in 2007.