SOUTH JORDAN — In a dead tie between two City Council candidates, who would have thought the city's photocopy machine would decide the winner?
Initial results on election night showed that candidate Aleta Taylor had won the race by four votes. For opponent David Colton, his defeat seemed real. But during the canvassing of the votes last week, the race got closer and closer.
"That was the longest week of my life," Colton said. "I went to bed Tuesday night thinking I had lost the election by four votes. Then I got up the next morning to find out I had lost by three after the absentee ballots were counted. By Thursday, it was a tie."
City Manager Ricky Horst said they had never encountered a tie vote in South Jordan's 69-year history. Horst said they mulled over tie-breaker options last week. "We thought about having them play a game of poker," Horst joked. In the end, they were to have Taylor and Colton draw numbered coins. That was until a surprise came in the mail on Nov. 7: one stray absentee ballot, but the postmark date on the envelope was too faded to read.
All absentee ballots were due in the day before Election Day. If the ballot was mailed on or after Nov. 4, it would not be valid.
"When you looked at it, boy, you couldn't tell," Horst said. City officials took security steps with the tie-breaking ballot.
"They had it hermetically sealed in plastic," Colton said, "to make sure nobody tampered with it."
City Clerk Candy Ponzurick had a solution. Using the copy machine, she darkened the envelope's image enough to clearly show the letter's postmark date was before Election Day. With both candidates present, city officials Monday opened the envelope, which yielded one vote for Colton. A recount was conducted at the Salt Lake County Clerk's Office for good measure to confirm Colton's one-vote victory over Taylor.
While a copy machine broke South Jordan's tie, it was a roll of the dice that determined the winner in the Washington Terrace mayor's race in Weber County. Mayor Mark Allen and challenger Robert Garside both received 724 votes during the general election. After dice were tossed Friday, Allen retained his office.
Colton said after election night he and Taylor, who could not be reached for comment, agreed to a recount and to then accept the results. "We decided no matter which way the vote would go that there would be a recount," Colton said.
Horst said there have been no further requests for another recount.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com