It takes a lot of balls to have a system like this
On the island of Hong Kong, when you have a normal election, well, things move in the same way that they do in other democratic countries. But when there is a tie... well, that is when the real fun starts.
In the event of a tie, instead of having a runoff election, the two tied candidates do something I thought was relegated to Shirley Jackson short stories and high school raffles.... they pick numbered Ping Pong balls from a bag... with the high ball winning the election. I guess they ran out of coins to flip.
In all honesty, I could see this principle being used in other parts of the world. Have a tie in the election of a union steward? Let's cut cards, high card wins. A tie in the American Idol voting? Rock, Paper, Scissors it out.... A tie at the oscars? Play blackjack for the statuette!
I could get behind that actually!
Just think about how much trouble would have been saved if they had just picked balls from a bag in November 2000. Or how much easier things would be this November.