USA Town Rolls The Dice To Determine Winner In An Election
Wisconsin, a small town in the United States of America (USA) was forced to roll the dice to determine the winner in an election for the Sister Bay Village Board president.
The election ended in a tie with both Rob Zoschke and Nate Bell receiving 256 votes each. The candidates were informed that a tiebreaker would be used, and the winner would be determined by a roll of the dice.
The dice rolled in Mr Bell’s favour with a 6-2, causing Mr Zoschke to lose his incumbent position, according to BBC News.
Heidi Teich, Village clerk, told the BBC that the development has drawn a lot of interest because it is an unusual thing. Ms Teich said:
For it to be settled with a children’s game is kind of unique. They felt that if you flip a coin and a candidate calls one side, the other candidate has no option but to take the other side. In a dice roll, both get to participate in some manner. I never would have dreamed we’d get this much attention up here
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The three-member board of pollsters considered several options, including pulling names from a hat, cutting a deck of cards, drawing straws, flipping a coin, and rolling dice. They ultimately agreed that rolling dice was the fairest and used it to determine the winner.
Neither candidate was able to attend the roll in person, so two canvassers rolled in their stead. Mr Zoschke watched the odd event via Zoom.
Casting the dice in an election is often used as a last resort when other tie-breaking methods, such as a recount or a runoff election, are not feasible or desired. Rolling the dice is seen as a fair way to resolve a tie since the outcome is random and not influenced by any outside factors. However, some people may criticise this method as being too arbitrary and leaving too much to chance.
The Bible mentions the casting of lots, which involves using dice or similar objects (Urim and Thumim), as a way of decision-making. It was used in the Old Testament to divide the land of Israel and to choose Saul as the first king of Israel. In the New Testament, it is mentioned in the book of Acts to select a replacement for Judas among the disciples. While it was common practice in biblical times, modern methods such as voting or arbitration are now used instead of casting lots.
While there may be some similarities between divination tools used by n’angas (witch doctors) and the casting of dice, the cultural and spiritual contexts of these practices are likely to be quite different.
