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Coin tosses and secret ballots used to break tie in Midvale mayoral selection
Summary
After an initial split vote, the council used a statutory coin-toss procedure to reduce tied candidates, then held a runoff paper ballot that resulted in Dustin Gettel’s appointment.
When the council’s first secret-ballot round failed to produce a majority winner, the City Recorder conducted a sequence of coin tosses to reduce tied candidates to two finalists as allowed by state law and the council’s adopted procedure.
City Manager Matt Dahl explained the procedure and the mechanics to the meeting: "The coin will be flipped and hit the ground; the coin must land flat on the ground to be a successful flip," he said. Repeated paired tosses among the tied candidates narrowed the field; the candidate who won the coin-toss sequence advanced to a final runoff between the two plurality leaders. The runoff paper ballot then yielded a 3–2 tally in favor of Dustin Gettel, who was appointed mayor.
