Pseudorandom numbers to break a tied referendum? Talk about overthinking. Nevada does it better. They literally draw cards from a deck. This has happened as recently as 2002.
After reading the article, it turns out that the code is copied from earlier legislation for parliamentary elections, which use a somewhat complex voting method. I suppose the motivation was to allow a computer to functionally determine the result without needing to put up a dialog suggesting that somebody needs to toss a coin and click "heads" or "tails".
The first result suggests announcing your move, and following through, gambling that most people think you are lying. In the last 10 years I've only ever played scissors, and I usually tell people ahead of time, and I still win about half the time.
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/candidates-draw-cards-to-...