Several races in small towns in New Mexico are too close to call. What happens next?

In New Mexico, when an election ends in a tie, even after a recount, the contest is decided with a game of chance. A card game, drawing straws, or a toss of the dice will do, as long as the candidates, a judge and local party bosses agree on the game.

Unofficial results in Tuesday’s election left three positions — council seats in Des Moines, Bosque Farms and Wagon Mound — tied and likely to undergo automatic recounts. If any of those contests remain tied after a recount, New Mexico law calls for the election to be decided by lot.

In 2021, for instance, candidates in the eastern New Mexico village of House settled a tied council election by drawing cards. That same year, a school board election in Dulce was decided over a crap shoot. Back in 1998, a mayoral election in Estancia was resolved over a game of poker in a spectacle covered by The New York Times.

Following Tuesday’s election, 31 offices and one school district mill levy proposition may be headed for automatic recounts, according to information from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.

It may also order automatic recounts if the margin of votes between the top candidates is under 1% or, in the case of the local ballot question, less than 0.5% of the total votes cast.

Candidates may request a recount up to six days after the canvass is complete, at their own expense unless the recount changes the outcome of the election.

A proposed mill levy supporting capital improvements at the Cobre Consolidated School District in Grant County may be subject to an automatic recount after the question finished with a margin of three votes, 550 in favor and 547 opposed, in unofficial results.

Five mayoral contests finished with razor-thin margins, especially in the small city of Jal, where a total of 376 votes were cast. Mayor Steven Aldridge’s reelection hangs on a single vote, with unofficial results showing him with 155 votes and challenger Phillip Nathan Little earning 156.

Mayoral elections in Des Moines, Estancia, Maxwell and Tatum came in at margins of two to five votes between the top candidates.

Similarly, automatic recounts could be in store for several city council and school board elections around the state, with margins as thin as a single vote.

Election results are not finalized until New Mexico’s 33 counties complete a canvass of local elections and the election is certified by the State Canvass Board on Nov. 25.