Primary winner determined by a tiebreaker drawing
MARQUETTE — The final piece to the general election puzzle in Marquette County was put into place Tuesday morning, one week after primary voting took place.
In the Champion Township Supervisor Race, both Democratic candidates Mark Hamel and Tina Koski each received 41 votes.
By law, a tie is determined by a drawing. County Clerk Linda Talsma wrote the words ‘nominated’ and ‘not nominated’ on two separate pieces of paper and put them into a box.
Each candidate picked one of the pieces of paper.
Tina Koski drew the ‘nominated’ slip, securing the nomination for the election.
“I am typically not a lucky person, so I thought the odds of me drawing nominated are pretty slim to none. I was very excited today when I did draw the nominated slip,” said Koski.
“It is democracy in action,” said Probate Judge Cheryl Hill, who presided over the process. “This is the first time I’ve been able to witness something as extraordinary as this. Having run for an election myself, I understand how difficult it is to run and how much time and energy you put into something. To have it come down to drawing a piece of paper, I wondered how the candidates were doing and they were both very good about the whole process.”
After losing the tiebreaker, Hamel, who’s been involved with Champion Township as a trustee for many years, filled out paperwork to be a write–in candidate for the general election.
If Koski and Hamel were to tie again in November, then the county would hold another tiebreaker drawing.