Indiana city mayor’s race ends in tie

Published 1:56 pm Thursday, November 5, 2015

JASPER, Ind. — Residents in a small Indiana city went to the polls Tuesday to select a new mayor, but they won’t know who that man is for the foreseeable future.

Voters in Jasper — a city of about 15,000 nestled in southwestern Indiana, about 60 miles from Evansville — gave Republican incumbent Terry Seitz and Democratic challenger Wayne Schuetter 1,856 votes each in Tuesday’s election. Joshua Budd, an Independent, received 190 votes.

The unique outcome means that, according to state statute, one of two options for breaking the tie will be triggered: the seven-member city council will break the tie; or if one of the candidates or their party chairs files a lawsuit requesting a recount and that recount changes the vote totals, the new figures would be certified by the county clerk.

“The election board certifies it to the city council, and they are the deciding factor,” said Dubois County Clerk Bridgette Jarboe. “They have until Dec. 31 of this year to do so, and it is the current sitting council that would make that decision, barring a recount or a contest.”

While both candidates reviewed the legalities of the matter, a sense of shock and surprise continued to grip the town the day after the election.

“I expected it to be close. We figured it would be close,” Schuetter said outside of the Jasper Knights of Columbus hall, where the Jasper Democrats gathered Tuesday night. “But this close?”

“I have a feeling there is a life lesson in this,” Seitz said from Tuesday night’s Republican gathering at the VFW Post in Jasper. “But as for me, I can’t do anything about what I can’t do anything about.”

What are the odds?

The Jasper Herald asked a professor of mathematics at Indiana University in Bloomington, and he said they’re about 1 in 10,000.

“It’s about as likely as you taking my bank card to the ATM and guessing my PIN on the first try,” said David Fisher, an IU professor and expert in probability. “You just don’t expect anything that’s 1 in 10,000 to actually happen in an election.”

The Herald reports there has been at least one other dead-even election in the county. In the 1950 race for Boone Township trustee, Republican Ray Kieffner and Democrat Jennings Hoffman each received 186 votes. They agreed to break the tie by “the flip of a coin or some other bit of chancery.” The party leaders decided on a shooting match. Each candidate picked a representative to shoot on his behalf, and Kieffner’s man won the one-shot contest. The event was dubbed the 12-gauge election.

This year, the resolution won’t be nearly as creative.

Schuetter isn’t sure if he will file for recount.

“At this time, I don’t think so,” he said Tuesday night. “I won’t say it’s out of the realm. But right now, nothing is telling me that I should.”

Schuetter said he will check with the clerk’s office once the certification is complete.

“If the election board felt all the ballots were fine and there were no abnormalities, I can’t see requesting a recount,” he said. “At this point, I feel pretty good about where we are.”

Seitz said he had not heard officially the details of the process for breaking the tie but planned to speak with Dubois County Republican Party Chairman Don Hayes on the matter.

“The state Republican Party has reached out as well,” he said. “It’s gone to a level that seems to be beyond just my campaign.”

If neither side files for a recount, or if that recount determines that there is still a tie, the common council will make the final decision on the race.

All because there wasn’t one more vote tallied in either direction.

“We always say that people should get out and vote,” Schuetter said. “This is another good indicator as to why everybody needs to get out and vote.”

Story used with permission from The Jasper (Ind.) Herald.