Why marbles, playing cards, and ping pong balls decide so many local Pennsylvania races

[RandySF]

At the Lancaster County Government Center on Friday, 26 clear-plastic bowls sat in front of blue index cards on a table, each card corresponding to a candidate for Mountville Borough tax collector.

Christa Miller, the county’s election director, shook a leather-wrapped bottle filled with red, numbered marbles, and tipped it upside down until one of the marbles fell into her hand. Down the line of bowls she went, adding a marble to each and calling out the number. When she got to the 19th bowl, with Keith Tarvin’s card behind it, she drew the lowest numbered marble, one.

And so it was decided: Tarvin, who wasn’t there to witness the process, would be the borough’s next tax collector.

The elaborate production was necessary because Tarvin and the other 25 candidates represented by a plastic bowl had all gotten the same number of votes in the Nov. 5 municipal election: a single write-in vote.



https://www.votebeat.org/pennsylvania/2025/11/24/why-marbles-playing-cards-and-ping-pong-balls-decide-so-many-local-pennsylvania-races/