Bodog Beat

New Mexico state law uses games of chance, including poker, to settle tied elections. (Bodog Beat Image)

According to New Mexico law, any tie in a local election must be decided by a game of chance and most recently that game was poker.

Earlier this week, Josie Richards and Michelle Dunlap found themselves neck and neck in the running for the office of Estancia Town Trustee and that's when the law kicked in and the pair picked 5-Card Stud poker to settle the election. Just one hand in which Richards outdrew her opponent with a pair of 9s. How quaint and Wild West-y.

Last year, another New Mexico election was decided by a card game, this time just a simple high-card draw. Prior to that Richards' sister ran for Mayor and ended that race with a tie and used poker for that decision-maker too. She lost.

Maybe the news story here isn't that poker has been used in politics to settle disputed elections for decades, but that New Mexico elections end in ties so often.