Voters in Richmond, a city in northern California, cast 1,921 votes for Andrew Butt to serve on the city council, while his opponent in the city council race, Cesar Zepeda, received the very same number of votes… 1,921.
This vote wasn’t just close. It wasn’t, as political pundits sometimes say, a ‘statistical tie, meaning the vote tally was really close, plus or minus, as they say, only a few votes. This tally was dead even, with both candidates receiving exactly the same number of votes.
There was a recount, with each and every ballot cast in the city council election recounted by hand, and the result was the same… 1,921 votes for Mr. Zepeda, and 1,921 votes for Mr. Butt.
The winner will be determined by the flip of a coin, perhaps, or by some other method.
The two candidates were joking around about maybe competing in a race, like a 100-yard dash, or something, to determine the winner. Maybe a drawing would be held.
Seeing the candidates laughing together, during the evening news, was quite a contrast to seeing election deniers, elsewhere in the country, doing their thing, refusing to concede they had lost, even when voting results indicated they had.
Whether the winner in the highly unusual tie vote, in the Richmond City Council election, will be determined by a coin flip, a hundred-yard dash, or by some other method, you get the feeling the result will be accepted, and the two candidates who campaigned vigorously against one another, will be just fine, with the outcome. And, these days, that’s pretty cool, uplifting and encouraging.
Also encouraging, over the weekend, was news about a nonprofit organization, Roots of Peace, getting ready to turn mines to vines, in an area of war-torn Ukraine.
Winemakers have cultivated vineyards, for thousands of years, in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine. The nonprofit organization, partnering with other organizations, will be removing explosive land mines, strewn about in vineyards, during Russia’s war in Ukraine, and replacing the mines with vines.
I can envision ugly, explosive land mines disappearing, and vines flourishing in lush vineyards… and that, too, is uplifting, and encouraging, and way cool.
Team USA losing to the Netherlands soccer team, in the World Cup competition, was a bummer, but the diversity on America’s team, and other nations’ teams, really was cool, too.
The athletes on sports teams work hard, as teammates. They succeed, as teammates, and, sometimes, when they fail to win, they share their sadness, and console one another, as teammates.
That sure can make you feel good, when the racial differences of teammates makes no difference.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.