Arizona Solution to Tied Election: Cut the Deck

This could have saved a lot of legal fees for Al Franken and Norm Coleman: A small town in Arizona settled an election that finished in a dead heat by asking the candidates to cut a deck of cards, reports the Arizona Republic. When the two council candidates each got 660 votes, town elders pulled out an obscure statute from 1925 that allowed them to decide the race "by lot." For the record, the king of hearts beat the 6 of hearts.

"It was pure Cave Creek," said the mayor. "Since we couldn't do a paintball showdown, we did something that is traditionally associated with the West, which is a card deck." (More Cave Creek, Arizona stories.)