Two groups opposed to slot machine gambling in Maryland have filed a lawsuit to block the referendum on the constitutional amendment to permit the new gambling, while the State Board of Elections officially turned down the request of a third anti-slots group to change the ballot language.
In Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Stops Slots Maryland and No Casino Maryland, along with their leaders, are asking a three-judge panel to block the balloting because the question is deceptive.
“We need to be truthful,” said attorney Irwin Kramer, who filed the lawsuit. “You think you’re helping schools, but you’re not,” even though that’s what the constitutional amendment says. Any new money from slot machines would simply offset money already designated for education.
“In reality, it’s just replacing what’s already there,” said Kramer. He represented the Republican leaders of the Maryland House and Senate in attempting to overturn the work of last November’s special session that approved tax hikes and the slots amendment. That lawsuit failed.
“When you pull the lever on the slot machine, you never know what you’re going to get, but when you pull the lever on a voting machine, you should know exactly what you’re getting,” Kramer said. He is suing the Elections Board and administrator, Secretary of State John McDonough, who wrote the ballot question, and the Department of Legislative Services, the General Assembly’s staff.
At the same time the lawsuit was being filed, Scott Arceneaux, senior adviser to Marylanders United to Stop Slots, was asking the Elections Board to add language to the ballot question to say that money from slots will also go to the horse racing industry, lottery operations and to the operators of the slots locations.
Arceneaux said the legislature deliberately put the school funding in the amendment, while it passed other legislation to allocate the other half of the proceeds to confuse voters.
On the advice of Assistant Attorney General Mark Davis, Elections Board Chairman Robert Walker turned down the request because he said the board “had no alternative.”
The board’s function is simply to take the language from the secretary of state and put it on the ballot, Davis said. “It does not have any discretion in this matter.”
After the ruling, Arceneaux said he would appeal again to McDonough to change the wording. He said he was not sure if his group would join the lawsuit filed by Kramer.
“We feel strongly that the referendum should not be stopped,” Arceneaux said. He just wants the voters to defeat it, he said.
