# Determination by Lot **Determination by lot** is the statutory instruction, found in roughly twenty-eight states, that a tied election be resolved by a random procedure. It is the only place in American election law where a statute directs that an outcome be produced by chance rather than by counting, voting, or judging — which makes it the clearest available statement of what a legislature does when it concedes that no further process will produce an answer. The decisive feature of the phrase is that **it names no mechanism.** "By lot" is a delegation, not a procedure: the statute commands randomness and leaves the randomizer to the canvassing authority on the day. The mechanisms actually used in American elections therefore include drawing names from film canisters in a bowl (Virginia, House District 94, January 2018), a playing-card draw with ace high and suits ranked in advance (Bradenton Beach, Florida, 2016), a dice roll re-rolled twice after failed attempts (Webster, Texas, 2012), coffee straws (Mississippi, 2015), a board-game piece drawn from a bag (Cook County, Minnesota), and a commemorative walrus-and-seal coin (Alaska, 2006). Only two states name the instrument in the statute: Idaho directs "a toss of a coin" before the Secretary of State within two days of the canvass (Idaho Code § 34-1216), and Iowa directs that names be drawn from paper before the canvassers (Iowa Code § 50.44). Lot is one of three families of tie-breaker, the others being a further election and a decision by a named officeholder. Which family applies is usually a function of the **office** rather than the state: Nevada resolves a tied primary for a federal or statewide office by lot and the identical tie at the general election by a joint vote of both legislative houses (Nev. Rev. Stat. § 293.400). Lot does not always extinguish the other remedies. Virginia draws the lot *before* any recount and expressly preserves the losing candidate's right to petition for one afterward (Va. Code § 24.2-674); Nevada provides that "the right to a recount extends to all candidates in case of a tie" (§ 293.400(3)). Expand with: the fifty-state instrument survey, the constitutional challenges to resolution by chance, the question of what happens when the randomizer itself fails, and the state-by-state question of whether the method is set by statute or by a canvassing board's unwritten practice. This is a stub — created in the 2026-10-08 ASCII map build for [[How a Tie Vote Is Broken]]. Expand as noted above. ## See Also - [[How a Tie Vote Is Broken]] · [[Recount Trigger Crosswalk]] · [[State Election Contest Crosswalk]] - [[Election Canvass]] · [[Recount]] · [[Election Contest]] - [[How a Midterm Election Is Certified]] · [[Ballot Marking Validity Crosswalk]]