Oregon primary tie resolved by coin flip, winner deemed ineligible

July 2 (UPI) -- A primary election in Oregon was resolved with a coin flip under state law -- but the winner of the flip was ineligible to run.

The 8th House District in Eugene, which skews heavily Democratic, had no Republicans on the primary ballot last week, so the race came down to write-in votes.

The two top candidates among the 103 write-in names were Democratic nominee Lisa Fragala and her former rival for the nomination, fellow Democrat Doyle Canning. Each of them received 7 votes.

State law requires the tie to be broken "by lot," which in the past has meant a roll of the dice or a coin flip.

Luke Belant, the state's deputy elections director, was placed in charge of the coin flip, and a Secretary of State's Office employee serving as Fragala's proxy called "heads."

The flip came up tails, giving the nomination to Canning. There was one further hiccup, however, as the state's "sore loser" law bars Canning from accepting the nomination, since she already lost the Democratic primary.

Fragala will now be the only candidate on the ballot in November, unless Republicans call a precinct convention to choose a candidate.

Canning said she was amused to hear of her sort-of victory in the primary, but praised the Secretary of State's Office for conducting the proceedings in accordance with the law.

"Even though we're talking about seven votes, it's great that we can all be so confident that the laws and procedures are so dutifully followed," she told the Capital Chronicle newspaper.

She said Republicans should take a lesson from the results and make sure to choose a candidate in the next election cycle.

"The lesson here for any political party is to field a candidate," Canning said. "I'm sure, had the Republicans fielded a candidate, they would have gotten more than seven votes."