Election official Addie Vetter tossed a coin in the air and let it hit the floor in the Washoe County commission chambers.
Next, Registrar of Voters Andrew McDonald broke the seal on a deck of cards and fanned them out face up on a table so the two men before him could see that it was a legitimate deck.
McDonald then commenced to shuffle the cards, noting he’d heard that seven shuffles were needed to get even distribution with a new deck.
“We’ll do eight for good measure,” he said.
The winner of the coin toss — Seth Schrenzel — drew first. He picked the card farthest to the left, the one on top of the deck. It was a 7 of diamonds.
Carl Copek drew next, choosing one a few in from the deck’s bottom: a 5 of clubs.
Schrenzel was high card.
McDonald declared him the winner of a four-year term on the Gerlach General Improvement District board.
And that’s one way Nevada decides an election.
The scene took place Nov. 5 in Reno. It happened because Copek and Schrenzel had tied for third place during the 2024 general election, each receiving 67 votes.
Gerlach is a tiny town of 120 people about two hours north of Reno that’s best known as a suburb of the annual Burning Man festival that draws 70,000 attendees.
The unpaid but elected trustees on Gerlach’s General Improvement District board make decisions about water resources, sewer, trash pickup and insect control, among other duties.
Gerlach had four seats open last year on its GID board and five candidates. Each voter could pick four choices in the race. The top three would get four-year terms and fourth-place a two-year term.
The card draw determined who got the four-year term and who would need to run again in 2026 if he wanted to stay on the board.
To laughs from Schrenzel, Copek told assembled media with a wry smile, “I’m announcing my candidacy today for reelection.”
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.
