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Maine starts Recount for the Casino initiative

Posted on December 5th, 2010

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The recount for the votes casted on Maine’s Casino referendum during the recent elections was initiated on Thursday morning after demands by Oxford County anti-casino groups. The referendum is also known as Maine Oxford Casino Initiative, Question 1. The initiated state statute appeared on the November 2, 2010 statewide ballot and was eventually approved. The Deputy Secretary of the State,Julie Flynn, said that according to the state law that regulates ballots and recounts, the recount process will be conducted inside the state police headquarters. The recount process will be done with a state election official and staff together with ten ballot review teams from the “yes” and “no” parties.

During the election, the pro-casino initiative had 280,424 votes while the opposing group had lost with 273,807 votes. The numbers were taken from 590 of the 596 precincts, though another tally reported that anti-casino groups only lost by 4601votes. Losing the election by an almost 1% margin, the losing party filed for a recount shortly after the elections, questioning in part the 4601 votes. Casino foes hope that they can reverse the results. With 564000 vote to consider though, the whole recount pocess won’t be as quick as anyone hopes.

On the 18th of March 2010, the lawmaking committee casted a 9 to 4 vote that allowed the Oxford casino initiative to be placed in the November ballot. But during the firt week of April, the initiative was opposed and rejected by the senate; instead they offered another alternative measure. Unlike the Senate, the House rejected the alternative measures and few days after, the placement of the initiative on the November ballot was approved.

The state officials said that they would like to work on the ballots by batches. Reports say the South Portland ballots will be the first to be cheked, followed by the Scarborough ballots. In addition, the officials of the state agreed not to bring all of the ballots, for security reasons. The South Portland and the Scarborough ballots were selected because they have had their votes recounted earlier for the state senate race.

Statewide recounts, is a rare incident in Maine. The Secretary of State,Matthew Dunlap, said that the last statewide recount happened almost twenty years ago. The recount is estimated to last for few weeks, and the total cost will depend on how long the recounts last. Secretary Matthew Dunlap added that, “In a recount, what you really seem to find are less sweeping changes … typically small, clerical errors,” Deputy Secretary of State Flynn said that the law states the exact requirements that cause a vote to be accepted or rejected.

One of the noted recounts was the 1970 recount that was conducted to review a gubernatorial race. The recount was in favor of Gov. Kenneth Curtis. On 1966, the voters had a recount regarding the restrictions of Sunday sales, which won the race. In 1995, the voters of Maine approved a law that obliges motorists to use seat belts while driving—failute to do so would result in pecuniary sanctions. The United Bikers of Maine, a motorcyclists group in Maine, requested a recount of votes. But with the recount barely reaching 15% of the votees, the United Bikers of Maine gave up.

This time, the Black Bear Entertainment owners and bondholders are confident that the results will be obvious from the start of the recount. The officials of Black Bear Entertainment plans to build a $165 million compound that will include plenty of slot machines, as well as table games. One reason why the initiative was not discarded is its major financial help on the state. The reports have it that the initiative will share 16% of the profit of the table games and also 46% of the net profit of the slot machines to the state. The revenues will be distributed to the projects of the state such as, for the K-12 education, which whill receive as ubstantianl amount. Another 4% will be allocated to the scholarship fund for the University of Maine, 4% for the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe and another 3% for the Maine Community College System Scholarships fund.