Election Tie Resolved

The first election day tie in recent local history resolved itself this week.

On Saturday, Kenneth Stojanik and Curtis Zwahr both received 27 votes for the final Ellinger city commissioner spot.

Fayette County Elections Administrator Teri Hefner, who said she had never encountered a local tie before (though there was a race in Flatonia decided by one vote last fall) said she checked election law and found there were three options to breaking the tie:

• Hold another election (which would come as a considerable additional cost to the city)

• One candidate could concede

• The two could engage in some game of chance to decide the winner.

Hefner passed along those rules to Ellinger Mayor Matt Mikulenka who talked with both Stojanik and Zwahr Tuesday.

Mikulenka said he was getting all sorts of interesting suggestions on the way to break the tie (including one from a Record reporter that a kolache at Hruska’s should be flipped, instead of a coin, to decide the winner).

But Zwahr informed Mikulenka that he would concede, so Stojanik gets the commissioner’s spot.

Also of importance in Saturday’s election for Ellinger, was the passage of a 1% sales tax within the newly incorporated city to be used for the City of Ellinger General Fund.

“I was glad to see that pass,” Mikulenka said. “It shows stability when applying for grants. Without a sales tax or property tax it’s almost impossible to get grants because they almost all require matching funds ... Our goal is to have quality water at a reasonable price in Ellinger.”