A seat on the Crete Village Board may come down to flipping a coin or drawing straws.

Preliminary results from the April 17 election for Crete Village Board showed a tie between incumbent Larry Johnston and challenger Brent Humecki.

With all of the nine precincts counted, both candidates had exactly 553 votes and 15.8 percent of the vote.

Election judges have until May 1 to count provisional ballots, grace period ballots and absentee ballots mailed before midnight on election day, Will County Clerk Nancy Schultz Voots said. These could easily break the tie on May 1, she said.

"After that, if it's still a tie, we have to go to a lottery or draw straws," Schultz Voots said. "We won't know for sure until the election judges come in and open those ballots and determine if (they are) valid."

Johnston was surprised by the preliminary tie.

"I was just shocked that the numbers were what they were," he said. "I'm just going to wait and follow whatever the rules are."

Schultz Voots has never had a tie since she has been in office, she said, but a state statute gives her a choice with how to handle the tie by lot, if that's the case.

"I'd have to decide if coins or straws or whatever I have to do," she said. "I'm not making that decision until May 1. I always say you can't celebrate (a win) until two weeks after the election."

If he wins, Johnston will be the only incumbent remaining on the board.

Incumbent Stephen Johnson trailed only slightly with 541 votes, and incumbent John Stoll lost by a larger margin. Challengers Holly Milburn and David Wallace won with 700 and 699 votes respectively.