In a scene that felt more like a scene from ancient Rome than modern American democracy, Kentucky officials resorted to a simple coin toss to decide a tied election for magistrate in Robertson County. Republican Benny Ray Renner and Democrat Kristen Gifford Fryman found themselves deadlocked at 91 votes each in the race for the 2nd Magisterial District.
No Margin, No Mandate
With all precincts reporting and not a single vote separating the two candidates, the Kentucky State Board of Elections made an unusual recommendation β settle it with a flip of a coin. The quarter, plucked from the sheriff’s pocket, landed tails-up after Renner called heads, handing the victory to Fryman.
‘When it was tied, I was like, βWow,’ Fryman told WEKU. ‘I was kind of shocked because I was told that’s never happened in our county before.’
From Rome to Robertson County
The practice of settling disputes by coin toss dates back millennia. Ancient Romans used a version called ‘heads or ships,’ where the emperor’s face on the coin carried divine approval for the winning call. In medieval Britain, it became ‘cross or pile’ based on coin designs. Robertson County’s method may have lacked imperial grandeur, but it preserved the tradition’s core purpose β resolving deadlocks when other methods fail.
Robertson County, Kentucky’s least populous, has now earned a place in electoral history. The outcome underscores how every vote truly counts in local elections β and how sometimes, even that isn’t enough.
Source: www.breitbart.com β https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/11/12/coin-flip-decides-kentucky-countys-tied-election-between-republican-democrat-candidates/