SEABECK — A race for Republican precinct committee officer in Seabeck was settled by a coin toss.

Paige E. Mitchell and Timothy Runyan each received 52 votes in the Aug. 7 primary and an Aug. 27 recount didn’t change the results.  The canvassing board settled it with a coin toss and Mitchell won.

It wasn’t the only race in Washington settled by coin toss this year. In Clark County, a Republican PCO was similarly settled.

“It’s rare, but it happens,” Kitsap County Auditor Walt Washington said. “That’s why just one vote makes a difference.”

Mitchell, a former graphic design intern at Children of the Nations in Poulsbo, is a student at Seattle Pacific University. She is double majoring in political science (international affairs) and communications.