Breaking The Tie

Miss Grand International for two years in a row wrestled with the arduous task of breaking a tie. Noting that tiebreak last year made a lot of hush-hush and the netizens stopped, looked, and listened, Nawat without batting an eyelash thought it is a surefire and a foolproof formula that it will click again. Clearly, someone with power and influence in the organization thinks this is a genius psychological tactic to manipulate the viewers and the fans. Nawat knowing how gullible he is made a poor copy of it this year. Unfortunately, it didn't work this time.

Fans tend to be lenient about gimmicks being recycled and reinvented as long as there are elements to make it fresh is done. Once the gimmick has been told, the second attempt makes it a poor copy of the original. The cat has been out of the bag and repeating it again loses its steam ... and its novelty. And for Nawat, once habits are formed it is hard to break ... he tends to repeat it, thinking the shelf life of the gimmick doesn't have expiration dates. 

Whether there was really a tie or not, only Nawat knows. This leads Vinusya to ask: Can you really select a deserving woman with just one question in a tie break? This contest is a fraud. there's no reliable source of result computation.

This is actually a good question. 

A tie-break is an extra game that is played in a tennis match when the score in a set is 6-6. The player who wins the tiebreak wins the set. In pageantry, it is only Nawat's device or game plan so he or his organization will get extra social media mileage. Can you imagine two last women standing and they have the same scores? It will surely make you stop and pay attention.

But the doubting Thomases of pageantry was quick to probe the statement: How did that happen when Nawat and company don't believe in scoresheets or tabulators?  They have judges, yes, but they were only there to give Nawat some company, not to judge.

In pageantry, the power to control the direction of the result of the contest is shared among the judges. Oftentimes these people will not see eye-to-eye, and votes may end in a draw. There are ways to resolve this situation by breaking the tie and moving on with business as usual.

One way of resolving the tie is to verify the votes to ensure that they are accurate. If the vote was conducted by ballot, recount the ballots. If it was conducted orally, ask the judges to restate their votes. If there is a scoresheet then comb it out by way of inspection.  

And resolving a tie will just be a breeze or a piece of cake if the organization will employ an accounting firm so whoever will be announced the winner will not be dubious or shady.

The problem with Miss Grand International is that they don't use scoresheets,  nor do they employ a firm to handle this delicate job. I know Miss Universe always strut that they use Ernst and Young to count the votes.  And Binibining Pilipinas prances the company represented by Mr. Robles who always become a regular fixture in every BPCI contest.

There is also another way to break the tie. Allow the chair of the board of judges to cast a vote if she has not already done so. The chair of a board is permitted to vote on all matters, but on many boards, the chair does not vote unless there is a tie. If the chair has not already voted, then her vote will break the tie. For example, if you have a board of seven people including the chair, and three have voted in favor and three against, allowing the chair to vote will result in a four to three majority.

Just like in American politics, Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution provides that the vice president of the United States is the ex officio president of the Senate and that the vice president may cast a vote in the Senate only in order to break a tie. Since January 20, 2021, the current 117th Congress' Senate has been divided 50–50 between Republicans and Democrats; therefore, Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote gives the Democrats the Senate majority.