It wasn’t long ago that Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams penned a “Podium” commentary for us, pointing out for us how every vote can be pivotal. And leave it to the elections watchdogs at Williams’s office to provide us not one but 14 – yes, fourteen – examples from just this past election.

As Secretary of State’s Office information minister Lynn Bartels writes in her blog this week:

Longtime election officials in Adams County can’t remember the last time a contest was so close it required a mandatory recount, so there’s more than just a little surprise that the county must recheck the outcome in five – yes, five- races. …

… In all, 14 races statewide in the Nov. 7 coordinated election are subject to a mandatory recount and of those six were tied after local canvass boards certified results, underscoring the message Secretary of State Wayne Williams delivers when talking to Coloradans: Every vote counts. Williams was the El Paso County clerk and recorder when two school board races were decided by a single vote, and a municipal tax question failed because it was tied.

Some of the races are real photo finishes, writes Bartels:

Among the tied races was a school board contest in Julesberg, where voters were to select three directors from six hopefuls. Tammy Aulston and Daniella Fowler were tied for the third slot at 225 votes each and they remained tied after the canvas board conducted the recount, Sedgwick County Clerk Chris Beckman said.

What’s more:

Under state law, if candidates are still tied the winner is determined by lot. So on Nov. 16 – more than a week after the election – Aulston and Fowler’s names were put into a bowl.  Aulston’s name was drawn, so she was elected.

Bartels writes about those nail biters and more; what you could call a true cautionary tale. Read the full blog post; here’s the link again.