History Main / DecidedByOneVote

* At the trial of UsefulNotes/LouisXVI, there were 721 voters on the first round of voting for his death. Only 361 voted for execution; 360 voted otherwise (either for imprisonment, a delayed execution, or execution with some other conditions).

* UsefulNotes/LouisXVI was the subject of several votes after being imprisoned during the UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, but the vote which decided upon his immediate execution was (essentially) 360-to-361.

* After the first game in ''Series/SquidGame'' leaves 255 of the 456 participants dead, the remaining players invoked a clause in the game rules stating that they can end the games and leave if the majority vote chooses to. The game masters oblige and a vote is held. The last player to vote, Il-nam, votes not to continue the game, breaking a 100-100 tie.

** ''Revenge of the Island'' saw a rather divided dynamic in the endgame. So much so that [[spoiler: Scott went home in a 2-1-1 vote. Had either Scott vote been for someone else, that person would have gone hime instead, whereas Scott changing his vote would have been enough to force a tiebreaker.]]

* During the impeachment of UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, he was ultimately acquitted by the senate by a vote of 19 vs 35, coming up just short of the 36 vote supermajority (2/3 of votes) required by US law to convict the President.

When an election is the main plot of the story, it is inevitably decided by one vote. This can manifest itself in several different ways:

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' plays this multiple times over with the Godsmoot. Each of the three pantheons gets one vote on [[spoiler:whether or not to destroy the world]]. The Southern Pantheon votes no and the Western Pantheon votes yes; the results of the polling of the individual gods in these pantheons is not shown. This leaves it to the Northern Pantheon, whose clerics are all in attendance. While the first votes lean heavily towards [[spoiler:not destroying the world]], a late run brings it to an 8-8 tie with, it is believed, only one vote left. Except they didn't count on a cleric of Hel being present, and Hel's vote reties the vote at 9-9, which means that the demigods must break the tie. 7 demigods have representatives present, and Hel believes she has the requisite 4 votes to [[spoiler:destroy the world]], but Hermod, demigod of messengers, thought that he would only be voting as such as a protest vote and refuses to be the vote to seal the deal, leaving ''that'' vote tied at 3-3 pending the vote of Dvalin, first king of the dwarves, who never votes without consulting the Dwarven Council of Elders. So we're currently waiting for the vote that will decide the vote that will decide the vote [[RuleOfThree that will decide the vote]]. (4-3, 10-9, 2-1)

* In the television series version of J.K. Rowling's ''Series/TheCasualVacancy'', the contentious Parish Pagford Council election that is the main over-arching subject of the series is won by Miles Mollison by just one vote. Notably, the election inspired such disgust that 35 voters simply submitted vandalized ballots as a form of protest.
* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' managed to combine various types into one election. Boss Hogg is up for reelection and the Dukes decide to run a friend of theirs against him. After all the votes are counted, the results are a tie. They notice that the county clerk hasn't voted yet because he's getting married. The Dukes retrieve him and get him to place his vote (with the wedding taking place in the back of their truck). Then he votes for the Dukes' friend instead of Boss Hogg. While Boss Hogg is complaining about his loss, it's time to reveal that Roscoe forgot to vote.

* The ''FanFic/FamilyGuyFanon'' episode "Do and Die" played this for laughs, where Peter and Quagmire's idea for the Beer Bar Buddies to do Saturday (Peter tight-roping and Quagmire jetskiing) are tied, but Cleveland can't choose between either one, leaving them tied.
-->'''Cleveland''': Sorry, fellas. Both are good options so I can't choose between one or the other.
-->'''Peter''': ''[sighs]'' Damn, [[{{Foreshadowing}} we really need to start finding more members]].

[[AC:[[{{Film}} Films]]]]

* The United Kingdom local elections in 2017 saw Northumberland County Council remain in no overall control[[note]]meaning no party has overall control of the council[[/note]]. However, this was due to the Conservatives literally drawing a short straw - South Blyth saw a tie between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and if this happens, a tie-break is held with that counting as an extra vote. Had the Liberal Democrat candidate drawn the short straw, the Conservatives would have won that seat and, with it, overall control of Northumberland County Council.

[[AC:FanWorks]]
* The ''FanFic/FamilyGuyFanon'' episode "Do and Die" played this for laughs, where Peter and Quagmire's idea for the Beer Bar Buddies to do Saturday (Peter tight-roping and Quagmire jetskiing) are tied, but Cleveland can't choose between either one, leaving them tied.
-->'''Cleveland''': Sorry, fellas. Both are good options so I can't choose between one or the other.
-->'''Peter''': ''[sighs]'' Damn, [[{{Foreshadowing}} we really need to start finding more members]].

* In the ''Anime/AstroBoy'' episode "Saving Our Classmate", a election for a class president has been called to replace the previous class president who had been transferred out prior. With the two contenders Kenichi and Shibugaki tied, the class realizes that Astro has yet to vote. Astro casts the deciding vote for Kenichi, causing Shibugaki to resent Astro for denying him a shot at the presidency.

* In the ''Anime/AstroBoy'' episode "Saving Our Classmate", a election for a class president has been called to replace the previous class president who had been transferred out prior. With the two contenders Kenichi and Shibugaki tied, the class realizes that Astro has yet to vote. Astro casts the deciding vote for Kenichi, causing Shibugaki to resent Astro for not having a shot at the presidency.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"

->'''Kent Brockman:''' The controversial bill passed by only a single vote.\\
'''Marge:''' You really should have voted, Homer.\\
'''Homer:''' Oh, it wouldn't have made a difference.

* An episode for ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'' has Rikochet opt out of voting for the class president, as the two lead candidates are his best friends and he doesn't want to choose one over the other. Thus the voting result is a tie, [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority so the school holds a lucha match to decide the winner]]. That winner is... the underdog candidate Snowpea.

* Plot point in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode, "It's Good to be the Queen". Stan came with Francine to her reunion only caring that he's married to the homecoming queen. Francine had won by one vote against Betty Sue who became devastated is currently obese. It is revealed that two ballots were uncounted both for Betty Sue. Francine had never won causes Stan to freak out and decides to go out with Betty Sue.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'' , the rare times Reggie beats Archie in a school election usually is because Archie and who's campaign manager (usually Jughead) were so busy compaining they forgot to vote themselves, making Reggie win by one vote.

* In ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToDie'', the second Main Game ends with the player character Sara having the deciding vote on [[spoiler: whether Sou or Kanna gets executed.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaRebirth2'', the four CPUs hold an election to determine which of them is most popular. When the votes are counted all four have received 123,456 votes, so when Underling shows up after the count, they try to make her cast the deciding vote, complete with veiled and not so veiled death threats if she votes the wrong way. She runs off instead, and nothing is decided.

** Subverted in the episode "Douche & Turd" where every other character [[SeriousBusiness makes an enormous deal]] out of Stan's refusal to vote for a new school mascot, since both options ("Giant Douche" and "Turd Sandwich") were joke write-ins from Kyle and Cartman, respectively, and he didn't find either of them particularly funny. When he finally caves and casts his all-important ballot, it is announced that the other candidate won by a landslide. Stan complains that after everyone made such a big deal, his vote didn't even matter. He gets AnAesop that every vote matters and the most important thing was that he voted at all. Then it's announced that the school is allowed to keep using their old mascot so the ballot is cancelled, at which point Stan is told that "''Now'' your vote didn't matter."

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', Gretchen and Vince run against each other for class president. The girls support Gretchen and the boys support Vince. There are two more boys than girls in the class, but Mikey and Gus refuse to take sides... but the election is in Gretchen's favor because Vince decides to vote for her. (Oddly, Gretchen is said to have won by one vote, but [[FridgeLogic that implies that one girl didn't vote]]; if everyone else voted down the gender lines, [[WritersCannotDoMath Gretchen would actually have won by two]]. The effect is the same either way, though.)

* The ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' Election Night video had the Red and Blue teams voting to see which one was the best and, as usual, each team was voting for themselves until they finally find s set-up with an odd number of members, only for one person to not vote. It turns out to be the Blood Gulch crew and Grif was the one who didn't vote, having forgotten to register beforehand, leaving the issue unresolved until the next election.

** Subverted in the episode "Douche & Turd" where every other character [[SeriousBusiness makes an enormous deal]] out of Stan's refusal to vote for a new school mascot (he didn't like either choice). When he finally caves and casts his all-important ballot, it is announced that the other candidate won by a landslide. Stan complains that after everyone made such a big deal, his vote didn't even matter. He gets AnAesop that every vote matters and the most important thing was that he voted at all. Then it's announced that the school is allowed to keep using their old mascot so the ballot is cancelled, at which point Stan is told that "''Now'' your vote didn't matter."

* A ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats'' story showed DumbBlonde Melody and AlphaBitch Alexandra running against each other for class president, but neither one was capable of getting more than exactly half of the school to support them. Alexandra, at the last moment, realized she could swing thing in her favor by telling Melody there was a rule against a candidate voting for themselves. Therefore, while technically Alexandra wins by two votes, Melody's single vote for her opponent prevents the candidates own votes from cancelling each other out.

* In ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionRebirth2'', the four CPUs hold an election to determine which of them is most popular. When the votes are counted all four have received 123,456 votes, so when Underling shows up after the count, they try to make her cast the deciding vote, complete with veiled and not so veiled death threats if she votes the wrong way. She runs off instead, and nothing is decided.