Jim Hamsher, left, Paul Woodworth and Lance Delgado wait for noon Nov. 20 on Front Street before drawing straws and holding a coin toss to decide the mayoral race in Prairie City. Hamsher called "heads" to become mayor. Hamsher and Woodworth both received 125 votes Nov. 2 in the general election. Delgado is the city's outgoing mayor. The Eagle/Scott Mallory

PRAIRIE CITY – It wasn’t much of a coin flip, barely reaching six feet in the air, but in the end it was good enough to determine the city’s next mayor.

Jim Hamsher, by virture of a call for “heads,” became the community’s newest leader a few moments after noon Nov. 20 on a street corner near the old Texaco station on Front Street.

“It wasn’t a very good flip; my hands were cold,” said Diane Clingman, the city recorder, who tossed the coin – the first time she had such a duty. “At least it didn’t roll down a sewer drain. I had nightmares of that happening.”

The toss did end Paul Woodworth’s campaign for a third term at the helm of the City Council, but he didn’t appear too bothered by the outcome.

“That’s all right,” Woodworth said. “No problem. No problem at all.”

The two men shook hands afterward as many in the crowd of about 100 people gathered for the coin toss cheered for Hamsher, who was asked what his first official duty as mayor would be.

“Well, hopefully, just to move the water project along right now. That’s the biggest thing,” Hamsher said. “We’ve got a bit of a waste-water pump problem that needs (to be) addressed.”

The two write-in candidates each received 125 votes during the Nov. 2 general election. A third candidate, Linda Harrington, the only candidate named on the ballot, received 109 votes.

Four recounts certified by County Clerk Kathy McKinnon didn’t change the result; so the stage was set for the coin toss during the city’s Christmas on the Prairie holiday celebration.

“If this brings another ten people downtown to the celebration, it’s a good thing,” Hamsher said before the toss, while waiting for noon to roll around with Woodworth and Lance Delgado, the current mayor, inside City Hall.

The tie vote brought interest from several newspapers, including The Oregonian and The Statesman Journal, and television stations, including one that broadcasts United States news to Japan.

“Tourists called about the coin toss,” Clingman said. “People are staying at the RV park because of it.”

The choice of heads or tails was determined by drawing straws.

“I got a couple sticks in my pocket. I made them,” Delgado said. “I had some dowel; so just before I came down here, I cut a couple of them.”

“They’re official drawing sticks,” Hamsher said.

“Keep them as a souvenir,” Delgado said. “Frame them.”

The action didn’t start until after the noon horn sounded.

The candidates then drew straws, with Hamsher pulling the long one out of Delgado’s hand for the right to make the call.

“Heads it is,” Delgado said.

“Good luck, boys,” Clingman said as she readied the coin in her palm

“Let her go,” Woodworth said.

The official coin was a Let ‘er Buck bar chip from the 2002 Pendleton Round-up. The picture with a cowboy on horseback was deemed heads, the other side, with “2002” on it, was tails.

“It’s a commenorative coin,” Clingman said.

It might end up in a frame with the sticks, said Hamsher, who was quick to call heads.

“That side’s a lot cooler looking, bucking horse riding,” said Hamsher, who earns money breaking horses, and who was wearing a cowboy hat. “That’s my favorite rodeo, so … .”

Hamsher is a council member; so his move up to mayor means there are three empty seats that will need filling when his term starts Jan. 1, because the two people who won council seats Nov. 2 moved out of town before the election.

John Kadela, who received 176 votes, moved to Colorado, and Bill Harrington, who received 167 votes, took a job in Ontario.

In January, when Kadela and Harrington would have taken their council seats, the mayor will appoint people to the council.

“None (of the current council) have said anything to me yet,” Hamsher said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. I had some other people in town show an interest, but I don’t want to name them at this time. Wait until they get their letters sent in. Don’t want to scare them off.”

Delgado chose not to run for another term as mayor for what personal reasons.

As for becoming mayor by the toss of a coin, Hamsher would have prefered a runoff election, he said.

“State law needs to change,” he said. “They ought to add a line that if a town or city decides to have runoff, and they want to bear the cost, they should be able to do it.”

Two residents of John Day, Rob and Linda Batten, enjoyed the spectacle.

“Excellent. I think it’s great,” both of them said. “They should have done it for president.”

The real story of the coin toss was that it showed that every vote counts, Clingman said.

That’s a lesson to be learned in a city where 200 or so of its more than 500 registered voters didn’t cast a ballot.

“If one more person would have voted, we wouldn’t have had to have the coin toss,” Delgado said.

Prairie City resident Sam Kyriss didn’t say for whom he voted, but he did like the coin toss.

“I think it’s the cowboy thing to do. I’m all for it. I think it’s a great idea,” Kyriss said. “Do we want to turn into another Florida, or what, you know, come on. This is Eastern Oregon. This is Prairie City. We don’t even have a stop light. We’re all friends here.”

Hamsher mentioned a small celebration.

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll have some kind of thing,” he said. “It won’t be long, either.”