Atlantic Beach City Commission Race to be Decided by Duel
By admin ·
Atlantic Beach, FL — After a machine recount and a hand recount, the Atlantic Beach City Commission race for seat 4 will be decided by a duel.
Candidates Jennifer Lagner and Lisa Herrold each received 3,162 votes, so Florida law requires that the election be decided by a game of chance.
The game chosen by Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland is a traditional duel.
"We don't get ties often, so we like to rotate the games. We've done ping pong balls and coin tosses, but I was going through some old drawers and found this set of dueling pistols last used when Duncan Fletcher tied in his 1887 City Council race, and figured 'why not?'"
Per the rules, each candidate will select their pistol, they will shake hands, turn away from each other, walk 10 paces and turn to fire on the signal of Atlantic Beach Mayor Curtis Ford.
If either candidate strikes her opponent with the ball fired from her pistol, she wins the seat. If both candidates miss, the process repeats until a winner is declared.