Virgin election decided by coin toss; Snyder on Town Council

The town of Virgin, Utah—also known as the “Gateway to Kolob”—has finally concluded one of the closest, most contentious Town Council elections in recent memory. After the first canvass by the Virgin election board on Tuesday, Nov. 10, Daniel Snyder was just one vote ahead of the incumbent councilor Danyale Blackmore; however, the Town Council refused to accept the canvass and ordered a recount scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16. After two hours of counting votes in front of an audience filled with people keeping their own separate vote tallies, the election judges finally arrived at a vote total that was one vote different than the one at the first canvass. The vote was a tie at 128 to 128.

Per Utah Election Code, in the event of a tie, the final decision is left to the “election officer,” which in the case of Virgin would be the town clerk, Monica Bowcutt. However, following the announcement of the tie vote, Virgin Mayor Bruce Densley encouraged the two candidates to flip a coin to make the decision. The candidates agreed, using a quarter volunteered by a member of the audience since no one on the Town Council had one. Blackmore called “heads,” but it came up “tails.”

However, the results of this coin toss might not have mattered. In order to be the official election results, the Town Council still had to vote to approve the result of the canvass, in this case, the tie. Councilor Bill Adams abstained from voting. Adams had previously voted against accepting the results which favored Snyder in the first canvass, and Councilor Jay Lee had abstained. If Lee and Blackmore—who was still an official voting member of the Council—voted against accepting the results of the second canvass, it was unclear what would have happened next. A similar case in Boulder County, Colo., was only resolved when the County Clerk overrode the refusal of the election board to certify the result of a canvass.

That didn’t happen with the Virgin election. Lee voted in favor, as did Blackmore. Blackmore and Snyder shook hands ,and the election was over. Daniel Snyder had been elected as a new member of the Virgin Town Council.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Town Council had to vote to approve the results of the coin toss.