DeLeshe Wins Final Stickney Village Trustee Seat On Coin Flip
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The final spot in the village trustee's race in southwest suburban Stickney was settled Wednesday morning with a coin toss.
WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports Cook County Clerk David Orr flipped the coin at his downtown Chicago office, to decide the race between Lea Torres and David DeLeshe, who'd tied for third place with 573 votes in the Stickney village trustee race. The top three vote-getters in the race win seats as trustees.
DeLeshe won the choice to call the coin, and called heads. It fell to the carpeted floor, and came up heads.
Torres said she might consult her attorneys to challenge the result, but maybe not, since she has nine grandchildren to keep her busy. She also said DeLeshe is a good person.
DeLeshe, a police officer, said his job prepared him well for the constant contact with Stickney residents that a trustee must have.
Under Illinois law, a coin flip is used to decide a race when two candidates are tied, which is rare, but not unheard of. Orr's office has used coin flips to decide ties in a Berwyn school board race and a Broadview village trustee race in 2011, as well as a 2007 Bedford Park village trustee race.
To decide who gets to call the flip, Orr's office typically puts the candidates' names in pill bottles, then mixes them up, and makes a selection, and the winner gets to choose heads or tails for the coin flip.
