The bill also addresses the issue of tied results in local elections. Tied results are rare, but when they do occur, they introduce a lot of uncertainty and disruption. At both parliamentary and local elections, ties are currently resolved with the toss of a coin. There has never been a tie in the final results of an election to this House, but, in 2019, there were ties at two different council elections. One was in Whakatāne. There was a tie in the final results. Following the law at the time, a coin was tossed and a winner was decided on the basis of that coin toss. The other candidate asked for a judicial recount, which was her right, and the recount found that she was the winner of the election. By this time, the original winner had already been sworn in and had started her work, but she had to leave the job. 