Texas City Chooses New Mayor By Picking Winner's Name From A Hat

The 2020 election season has been stressful, but a small city outside of Houston has found a way to avoid that by picking its new mayor out of a hat.

In November, Jennifer Lawrence and Sean Skipworth both ran to be the mayor of Dickinson, but the election ended in a tie. Both candidates each received 1,010 votes.

"How often does something like this happen? It's really been unique. (It) turned into a dead tie of 1,010 votes to 1,010 votes, which adds up to 2020. We're all going, 'What the heck?'" Lawrence told ABC 13.

Under Texas state law, the "casting of lots" can be used to decide the winner in a tied election. So the city of Dickinson chose its new mayor in the fairest way possible: by picking the winner's name out of a top hat. The drawing was also broadcast live on the city's Facebook page.

"I mean you can't make this up. Nobody would believe it if you put it on TV or something, I mean, it's just unreal," said Skipworth.

On Thursday night, the crowd at the drawing ceremony was shown that the hat was empty before Lawrence and Skipworth dropped in ping-pong balls with their names on them. To avoid bias, the mayor from the nearby city of Friendswood was asked to pick the winning ping-pong ball.

Skipworth ended up being the lucky winner, and he'll officially be sworn in as mayor later this week.

“Given what happened, it is refreshing for people to see this in everyday America. At the end of the day, we came and hugged it out and shook hands, and that was it. And that’s how it should be," Skipworth told the New York Times.