Nine-hundred and two votes each. But in the end, the District Five race was decided by 25 -- cents.
Most of us know who won our local elections, since Primary Day was almost a week ago.
But one race had just four votes separating it -- until Monday morning. By noon, a race for Butler County Commissioner was tied - 902 for the incumbent, and 902 for the challenger.
In Butler County, some things are still done the old fashioned way. The votes are still officially recorded by hand, and a tie ends with a game of old-fashioned chance.
In this case, it decided the winner of the District 5 Commission seat. "To win and lose on a coin flip is not the way you want to do it. But that's the way it is," said Dan Woydziak, the incumbent for the last 3 terms.
Woydziak recalled his life-altering coin-call. "I started to call heads, because everybody says you always call heads, and I decided at the last minute to call tails, and it worked out really well."
Woydziak, the incumbent, thought he lost his commission seat. He was four votes behind Steve Scholtz, who went to high school with Woydziak's daughters. Monday, the county clerk counted the votes.
"I was ahead by four," said 22-year old Scholtz later in the day, as he stood on his grandparent's farm, almost a stone's throw away from Rose Hill. "Then I was down by one, and I never got down below one, then I kept bouncing back and forth, and ended up in a tie."
It was clear a change - not the political kind, but the silver kind - would determine the winner.
"We agreed to just go through with a coin flip," said Scholtz. "He called tails, and that's what it did."
Both Woydziak and Scholtz had 902 votes each. That's roughly 1,800 ballots cast in a district of 6,000 voters (the area includes Rose Hill). And there's one thing the political rivals agree on -- races like this one show every vote does count.
"Oh man, it sure does," said Scholtz as he shook his head.
"There's a 100 reasons to tell you why you shouldn't," said Woydziak. "And to the people who say my vote doesn't count -- guess what, your votes counts."
"It's very true," said Scholtz. "Our voice matters. We've just got to get out and let it be heard." He continued, "Our whole family talked about how, if we didn't vote, it would've been the other way."
There is no opponent for the commission seat in the November General Election. So Woydziak will keep his commission seat, unless someone mounts a strong write-in campaign. Scholtz hasn't decided if he'll be the one to do it.
