###

PREVIOUSLY

• The Blue Lake City Council Race Could Very Well End in a Tie. Here’s How It Would Get Decided.
• Blue Lake’s City Council Election Tie Will Be Resolved By Pulling a Name From a Hat, Essentially

###

Rarely is democracy so dramatic. 

An exact tie for the third and final available seat on the Blue Lake City Council was resolved tonight with bated breath as a slip of paper pulled from an envelope — which, moments earlier, had been selected among two envelopes inside a Christmas box — was revealed to have the name of Kat Napier written upon it.

With that, Napier defeated 12-year incumbent Mayor Adelene Jones, whose name had been written on the other slip of paper inside that envelope — and on one of the two slips inside the other envelope, left in the box.

If this sounds like an odd way to resolve an election, well, that may be true. But it appears to have met the parameters of California Elections Code 15651, which says election ties not determined by a runoff must be resolved with a random selection process like drawing straws or pulling a name out of a hat.

Or flipping a coin?

Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan P. Cervantes was present at the meeting, and he addressed the council right before this random draw, though he did so only as a member of the public. The council and staff had just been discussing the various methods that might be used to pick the winner in a manner that seemed most fair and transparent. Maybe it would be more random, somehow, to have eight or ten pieces of paper in a hat, evenly divided between Napier and Jones, one councilmember suggested. Ah, but it depends on the size of the container. And staff had only cut two pieces of paper in the exact same size. And so on.

“Is there a reason why we’re not flipping a coin?” Cervantes inquired. “Cuz it seems significantly straightforward and intuitive.”

The consensus among staff and the council was that, no, in fact. A coin flip might court controversy. Who gets to call it? Does it fall all the way to the floor? What if it clips something on the way down?

So instead, the group decided to go with four pieces of paper — two with Napier’s name, two with Jones’s — divided into two separate envelopes and placed into one gift box.

Napier and Jones put the names in the manila envelopes themselves:

Those envelopes were then placed into the gift box, which was shaken vigorously as Napier and Jones stood awkwardly in front of the council table, awaiting the result. Eventually, an envelope was selected, and a paper was pulled from that envelope.

As the name was revealed, Jones’s face fell and Napier exclaimed, “Oh boy!”

The two candidates then shook hands, and Jones, looking dejected, returned to her seat and started gathering her things. However, she was reminded that the new council hadn’t yet been sworn in. She was still mayor, for a few minutes more. 

She took the opportunity to address the public. 

“We had the tie-breaker, and Kathryn Napier won the tie,” she said. “I would like to say that I’ve loved being the mayor for all these years.”

She recalled some of her proudest achievements, including getting the city through the difficult COVID pandemic, helping to bring roundabouts to intersections, developing a gateway to the city, participating in the groundbreaking for the Annie & Mary Trail and approving bridges over Powers Creek.

“And, of course, assisting in getting our town square across the street from the Post Office has been my greatest joy and proudest moment,” Jones said.

She closed with a bittersweet farewell remark to the three newly elected councilmembers — Napier, John Sawatzky and Michelle Lewis-Lusso.

“If you love Blue Lake even half as much as I do, then we’re going to be fine,” she said. “Just fine.”

As staffers and colleagues offered appreciations, Jones sat for one last time in the mayor’s chair and accepted a round of applause.