A woman plays a slot machine at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday that requires new casinos in the state to be approved by a countywide special election and repeals a Pope County casino license already in the state constitution.
Voters approved the measure with 617,803 votes (55.73%) in favor to 490,730 votes in opposition (44.27%), according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office with 94.59% of the votes counted.
Local Voters in Charge, the ballot question committee supporting the ballot initiative, said Wednesday morning that passage of Issue 2 will mean “no Arkansas community will have a casino that they don’t want forced into their hometown.”
“There is now a clear and legitimate path forward for additional casinos — only now with a local option requirement. If any county in Arkansas — including Pope County — desires to have a casino, they should work with an operator through a transparent, legitimate, and fair process to add a license and also verify local voter approval,” Local Voters in Charge said in a statement.
The constitutional amendment was a citizen-led initiative, which Local Voters in Charge championed. The ballot committee submitted approximately 26,000 more valid signatures than the required 90,704, but the measure faced significant opposition after being certified for the ballot.
Pope County Judge Ben Cross, who opposed the initiative, said in a statement Tuesday evening that the passage of Issue 2 will have a “direct and regressive impact on our county, and the entire River Valley for that matter.”
According to unofficial county-by-county results from The Associated Press, a majority of voters in Pope County voted against Issue 2. The surrounding counties of Yell, Johnson and Conway also voted against the measure.
“In what is undoubtedly the epitome of irony, Pope County voters definitively made their voices heard once and for all on the casino issue by soundly defeating Issue 2 in our county,” Cross said in a statement. “While 74 other counties once again decided an issue for us, it is interesting to note those closest to the issue, our neighboring counties, likewise defeated Issue 2.”
Cross noted the economic impact the passage of Issue 2 will have on the county, which he said will range from schools missing funding opportunities, to volunteer fire departments sacrificing new equipment purchases.
“For the county, we lose not only the direct economic development funds, we lose the opportunity for a new courthouse annex, and a host of other priority infrastructure projects that are desperately needed to provide essential services to our citizens,” Cross said in a statement. “While I anticipate almost certain litigation will ensue, I am also acutely aware such litigation could take years to resolve with an array of possible outcomes. Therefore, we as a county, will persevere, and continue to provide the best services we can with the resources we have.”
Chuck Garrett, CEO of Cherokee Nation Businesses, which has opposed the initiative and provided funding for the campaign against it, shared similar sentiments about the passage of Issue 2.
“Issue 2 is a devastating setback to the economic future of the communities in Pope County and the state of Arkansas,” Garrett said in a statement early Wednesday morning. “As we anticipated, voters in Pope County and across the River Valley voted against Issue 2 by an overwhelming majority because they recognize the immediate economic prosperity a casino resort would bring. Issue 2 passed statewide under the misleading pretense that it provides local control. As evidenced tonight, that could not be further from the truth.”
Legal challenges
One day after Secretary of State John Thurston certified the anti-casino amendment for the ballot based on an adequate number of signatures collected, a ballot question committee formed and challenged Local Voters in Charge’s signature collection.
The state Supreme Court didn’t decide until Oct. 17, four days before the start of early voting, that votes cast on the proposed amendment would count.
The high court found Local Voters in Charge appropriately collected its signatures and it was acceptable to have an agent sign required canvasser paperwork in place of a sponsor. In a separate decision, the court also found the popular name and ballot title were sufficient.
In hearings conducted by a special master before the Supreme Court ruled, the Arkansas Canvassing Compliance Committee (ACCC) argued that Local Voters in Charge offered financial incentives to canvassers who collected more signatures, hired out-of-state canvassers and spread misleading information about what the amendment would do.
Thurston also argued through his legal counsel provided by the attorney general’s office that all votes on the measure should not count because an agent for the ballot question committee signed canvasser paperwork, not a sponsor.
Special Master Randy Wright, in a report intended to offer facts of the case to the Supreme Court, found that nearly 6,000 of the collected signatures should be disqualified due to insufficient addresses. He said he did not have enough proof to support ACCC’s other claims against Local Voters in Charge, and he denied the argument for disqualifying all signatures because of an agent’s signature.
The high court agreed with Wright’s findings and certified the proposed initiative for the ballot.
In the days leading up to the election, printed, online and televised advertisements for and against the proposed anti-casino amendment proliferated, further pitting the two sides against each other.
Local Voters in Charge was funded by an out-of-state casino operator, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The tribal casino firm, a rejected applicant for the Pope County casino license, operates a casino in Pocola, Oklahoma, just across the border from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Financial records show Choctaw Nation donated $5.3 million to Local Voters in Charge.
ACCC’s members include Jennifer McGill and Nick Patel of Russellville, Dover Mayor Roger Lee and Cherokee Nation Businesses. The Arkansas Racing Commission awarded the Pope County casino license to Cherokee Nation Entertainment, an affiliated company, in late June. Another license applicant, Gulfside Casino Partnership, filed a lawsuit challenging the license in July.
McGill also chaired a different group that formed in May in opposition to the proposed anti-casino ballot initiative called Investing in Arkansas, which Cherokee Nation Businesses donated to.
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