The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #27652 Message #342225
Posted By: Steve Parkes
17-Nov-00 - 06:12 AM
Thread Name: BS: Effective Immediatley
Subject: RE: BS: Effective Immediatley
And news just in ...
The US election could be decided in true Wild West fashion with the candidates playing a hand of poker - winner takes all. Under state law in New Mexico, where just 377 votes separate the two candidates and ballots are still being counted, five-card stud poker can be played by candidates in the event of a tie in any local election. The set of circumstances required before the card game with the highest ever stake can take place are complex but not impossible. George W. Bush must win Florida and Al Gore must successfully challenge Mr Bush's slim win in New Hampshire - that is when the New Mexico count would decide the presidency. Dino Montoya, press secretary to New Mexico's secretary of state, told Ananova that only last year the poker hand rule was used to decide the election of a magistrate after two candidates, Republican Jim Blanq and Democrat Lena Milligan, tied at 798 votes. A hand of poker in the local courthouse settled the election in Mr Blanq's favour. In 1988, an ace-high flush was enough for James Farrington to become Mayor of Estancia. Mr Montoya said: "It could be a hand of poker or the flip of a coin - its up to the two candidates involved and in this case that would be Mr Bush and Mr Gore or their representatives in the state. "It has been that way ever since we became a state - we achieved statehood in 1912. People are quite proud of the way things are done here and we get a lot of interested calls about the method." For more, visit http://ananova.com/go/75025