04/16/2026
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St. Charles County Missouri Scanner Traffic
Democracy in Action: St. Charles Ward 1 Race to Be Decided By "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (Kind Of)
ST. CHARLES — Democracy is a beautiful thing. People research candidates, fill out ballots, stand in lines, and then one person shows up at a polling place without a current photo ID, votes provisionally, and turns a done deal into the civic equivalent of rock, paper, scissors.
Welcome to Ward 1, everybody.🗳️
On Election Night, Chris Kyle edged out three-year incumbent Bill Otto for the Ward 1 City Council seat by a single vote out of more than 1,100 cast. One vote. Kyle’s people were thrilled. Otto’s people were gutted. Everybody went home.
THEN MONDAY HAPPENED.⬇️
Election officials verified the legitimacy of that lone provisional ballot cast in Ward 1, and the voter had backed Otto — wiping out Kyle’s lead and leaving both men deadlocked at 572 votes apiece. One person forgot their ID. One person. And now two candidates, their families, and probably a fair number of nervous neighbors are staring at each other waiting to see who blinks first.
A state-mandated manual recount of precinct 603 was conducted Thursday morning, April 9th.
Otto actually won both precincts in the hand count. The outcome did not change.
Still tied. Great. Wonderful. This is fine.
THE CHARTER HAS ENTERED THE CHAT⬇️
So what happens now? Glad you asked.
The City of St. Charles has an actual written answer to this exact situation, and it is spectacular.
Section 9.4 of the St. Charles City Charter, under the thrilling heading “Determination Of Election Results,” includes a subsection called “Tie Vote.” It reads: “If at any regular municipal election there shall be no choice between candidates by reason of two or more having received an equal number of votes, the council shall proceed to determine the election by lot between the candidates receiving the most votes at the meeting at which the canvassing of the election occurs.”
By lot. Written into the City Charter. Approved by St. Charles voters on November 3, 1981. Still on the books. Still completely, gloriously real.
If you are wondering what “by lot” looks like in practice in 2026, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that St. Charles has opted to draw a name from what officials described as a “small opaque jar.” Not a coin flip. Not a tiebreaker round. Not a dance-off. A jar — specifically chosen so nobody can see inside it — will determine who represents downtown St. Charles on the City Council.
Someone, at some point, made a deliberate decision that the jar needed to be opaque. They thought about transparency. They rejected it. In a jar.
The founding fathers would have thoughts.đź’
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT⬇️
The election must be certified before either candidate can formally request a full recount. Otto said he owes it to his voters, his constituents, and his supporters to see the entire process through, including pursuing a full recount. Which is exactly what you would expect from someone who watched a three-year tenure hinge on one forgotten photo ID.
Kyle, for his part, has now been declared the winner, tied, recounted, and is still tied — all in about a week.
If a judge orders a full recount and the race remains deadlocked after every last ballot has been reviewed, the City Council will gather, someone will reach into that small opaque jar, and Ward 1 will have its representative.
There are 110,000 people in this community. Thousands voted in April 7th races across the county.
The seat that represents the historic heart of St. Charles may ultimately come down to a name on a slip of paper pulled from a jar nobody can see through.
Democracy. It’s something.
Stay tuned to the next council meeting to find out! Maybe they should arm wrestle.
Source: What’s Going On in St. Charles
