Incumbent wins tiebreaker in Queen Bee school board race

William Staunton gets to keep his school board seat in Queen Bee Elementary District 16 as decided by a random drawing conducted by the DuPage County clerk’s office Friday.

The race for the fourth and final available school board seat came down to chance after Staunton and another candidate, Merima Biacan, each received 895 votes in the April 1 election.

Under Illinois law, when two or more candidates end up with the same number of votes, election authorities will determine, “by lot,” which candidate is selected to hold office, according to a notice from the clerk’s office.

“From a math perspective, it's one hell of a statistical anomaly to literally land in a dead tie at the number 895,” Staunton said last week.

A tiebreaker is not unprecedented. In Lake County, a coin flip determined the winner of a seat on the Green Oaks village board in 2011. In Will County, Brian Wojowski and his opponent were tied before he won a lottery for a Plainfield village trustee seat in 2015.

Queen Bee District 16 is based in Glendale Heights.

Daily Herald reporter Mick Zawislak and Shaw Local contributed to this report