Coin flip breaks tie in Sultan council election

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 6, 2001

By Leslie Moriarty

Herald Writer

EVERETT – She lost the election. But she went home a dollar richer.

Not that that was any consolation to Sultan city council member Cindy Broughton who lost the flip of a coin to decide a tied city council race today.

“Tails,” she said, as the coin was flipped in the air by Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger.

The gold liberty dollar coin landed heads-up.

As is the tradition, Terwilliger picked it up off the floor and handed it to her.

For the first time in his career as auditor, Terwilliger had to flip a coin to determine the winner. A hand recount of ballots cast in the Nov. 6 general election left Broughton and Robert Criswell, candidates for the position 2 council seat, at 501 votes each.

The hand recount was requested by Criswell when a machine recount on Nov. 30 showed him at 482 votes to Broughton’s 487. The race had been tied at 496 when ballots were first tabulated election week.