Maryland OKs slots

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Tom LoBianco and Emily Kimball THE WASHINGTON TIIMES

ANNAPOLIS | Maryland voters turned out in large numbers Tuesday to approve a state constitutional amendment to legalize slot-machine gambling while Democratic efforts to replace a longtime Republican representive made for tight, bitterly fought contest on the Eastern Shore, according to early returns.

With 1 percent of 1,829 precincts reporting, 7,488 Marylanders (62 percent) voted for the slot-machine measure and 4,536 (38 percent) voted against it. In addition, Mr. Obama had won 10,823 votes (54 percent) and Republican presidential nominee John McCain had received 9,131 votes (45 percent).

Maryland voters turned out in large numbers, forcing state elections officials to open a call center and distribute additional voting machines across the state to deal with the turnout.

Slot-machine gambling has dominated state politics for the better part of the decade, moving from a routinely doomed bill in the General Assembly under former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, to a ballot measure drafted by Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, to voters Tuesday.

Despite legislative tweaks, little has changed in the arguments about the machines: Supporters say slots revenue is needed to improving schooling for children in grades K through 12, and critics say gambling is immoral and a tax on the poor.

"Today, I'm asking for your support and trust in voting for Question 2," Mr. O'Malley wrote in an e-mail to Marylanders, one of his few public appeals for slots during the campaign.

Polls were set to close at 8 p.m., but many expected voting in some of the state's most active precincts to continue at least a few hours longer because state law allows everyone in line by 8 p.m. to cast a ballot. Election results were not immediately available.

The State Board of Elections, which had handled voter questions in past elections, called on more than 100 call-center staffers from InfoSpherix Inc. of Cumberland to handle a wave of inquiries that had topped 8,000 calls by Tuesday afternoon.

"We just wouldn't have been able to keep up with that," said Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator for the state board, which expected about 85 percent of registered voters to cast ballots.

Long lines and long waits marked early-morning voting in Maryland, but much of that had dropped off by about 10 a.m. Elections watchdogs in Maryland reported an orderly, trouble-free voting experience by most people across the state.