1.   An elected official creates the odd number that breaks any tie vote.

2.   As you may recall, the death penalty lost last year by literally the narrowest of margins, coming to a tie vote in a bitterly divided House.

3.   A Cincinnati-based appeals court heard a challenge to that ruling, but wound up with a tie vote, which affirmed the trial-court ruling.

4.   A year ago, a similar measure was stopped with a tie vote after six hours of debate in the state House of Representatives.

5.   A tie vote defeats an amendment.

6.   A week ago, the House rejected, by a tie vote, a nonbinding resolution expressing support for the airstrikes.

7.   Al Gore canceled a stop in New York and returned to Washington to break a possible tie vote on a Senate bankruptcy bill.

8.   Buoyed by the tie vote, Abraham vowed to try again on the Senate floor.

9.   But if a tie vote occurred, he would cast the tie-breaker.

10.   But the fact that Republicans would win tie votes with Cheney is irrelevant to Democrats, who say that committee assignments must reflect the ratio of the Senate.