6,324 Votes, a Perfect Tie, and a Coin Toss. Welcome to Florida.

After recounts failed to break a deadlock, an Atlantic Beach election came down to heads or tails. Yes, seriously.

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — In Florida, we have a long and proud tradition of doing things a little differently. We’ve got alligators in swimming pools, hurricanes with names, and people who willingly stand in line for two hours to ride a roller coaster in 95-degree heat.

And now, apparently, we’ve got elections decided by pocket change.

On Friday, November 13, 2026 — Friday the 13th, naturally — the race for Atlantic Beach City Commission Seat 4 was settled with a coin toss after two candidates managed to receive the exact same number of votes.

Not almost the same. Not within a handful.

Exactly. The. Same.

Jennifer Lagner: 3,162 votes.

Lisa Herrold: 3,162 votes.

That’s 6,324 votes cast between two candidates, and not a single vote separating them.

Sometimes democracy really is a 50/50 proposition.

Recount It Again. Maybe Something Will Change.

The November 3 election originally appeared to have a winner, with the candidates separated by just a few votes.

But as additional ballots were counted and election officials performed machine and manual recounts, the race eventually landed in a dead heat.

Officials even waited for the deadline for eligible overseas ballots, hoping another vote might finally settle things.

At one point, an overseas ballot arrived that could have made all the difference. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to avoid a coin toss, the voter hadn’t selected either candidate in the Seat 4 race.

Still tied.

So, with no votes left to count and no other way to separate the candidates, Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland turned to an unusual but perfectly legal solution.

A game of chance.

Heads, Tails, and a Four-Year Term

Under Florida law, an election that ends in a tie can be decided by drawing lots.

The law doesn’t specifically require flipping a coin. It just says the outcome must be determined by chance.

For Atlantic Beach, officials selected a best-two-out-of-three coin toss.

The rules were straightforward. Each candidate would have an opportunity to call heads or tails, with a third toss available if necessary.

It wasn’t.

Herrold called heads on the first toss. The coin landed tails.

Lagner called heads on the second toss. The coin landed heads.

Just like that, Lagner won the tiebreaker 2–0 and became Atlantic Beach’s newly elected Seat 4 commissioner.

Months of campaigning, thousands of votes, recounts, and a nail-biting wait for overseas ballots.

All settled with two flips of a coin.

Somewhere, a high school football referee probably feels overqualified.

Believe It or Not, Duval County Has Done This Before
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