Ping pong ball determines mayor for Florida town


For the first time ever, the winner of Florida's Duval County elections, Richard Arthur, was decided in a game of chance.

No military overseas ballots came in for the Neptune Beach City Council Seat 4 race by 7 p.m. Friday. Arthur faced challenger Rory Diamond because the two remained tied at 1,448 votes apiece.

The winner was decided at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

>> Read more trending stories  

There were three rounds to the game of chance and the rules were very specific.

Here is a look at the basic rules:

In the first round, there was a drawing of names to determine which candidate calls the coin toss. The candidate who prevailed in round decided whether he would like to be first or last to draw a ping-pong ball in round three.

In the third round, 20 ping-pong balls will be placed in a bag numbered 1-20. The first candidate will draw a number and then place the ball back in the bag. The second candidate will then draw. The highest number wins.

Arthur pulled number 12 and Diamond pulled number four.

There are very specific rules regarding the game that can be read  by clicking here.