Recount ends, casino referendum official

OXFORD - On Monday, casino foes agreed to end a statewide recount of ballots, conceding that further recounting was unlikely to alter the outcome.

In November, voters approved the establishment of a casino in Oxford County by a margin of about eight-tenths of 1 percent, or roughly 4,600 votes.

After teams of volunteers and state officials recounted 132,000 of the 560,000 votes cast, the casino supporters had added over 50 votes to their lead. The recount effort contained a sampling of ballots from large cities, small towns, machine-processed, hand-processed, in municipalities in which the casino had lost, and in municipalities in which the casino had won. In each instance, the initially-reported vote totals were found to be substantively correct.

"It was clear that there were no major discrepancies in the official results after counting over 20 percent of the total votes cast, so the groups decided to cease counting more ballots," said Dennis Bailey, executive director of casino opposition group CasinosNO!.

CasinosNO! and casino firm Black Bear Entertainment (BBE) sent out dueling press releases within hours of the end of the recount.

BBE credited casino opponents for ending the recount.

“They had the right to ask for the recount. We admire the dedication and passion that Zizi Vlaun [of Oxford Hills No on 1] and her associates obviously had for their cause,” said Mark Robinson, a spokesperson for BBE. “We also appreciate that the data produced by the recount proves Election Day results were rock solid. Saving Maine taxpayers additional expense is the right decision, and they deserve credit for having made it today.”

The CasinosNO release conceded that the vote was accurate, but vowed to continue the fight against gambling in the state of Maine. Bailey said that the group would "seriously consider" a legal challenge to the referendum.

"Several lawyers have identified provisions in the Oxford casino bill that are clearly unconstitutional," said Bailey, "because it grants valuable, exclusive rights to a single entity. It's like passing a law to give the right to operate gas stations to just one person."

Ballots from the five largest communities in Maine, those being Portland, South Portland, Scarborough, Biddeford, Saco and Cape Elizabeth were recounted, as well as smaller communities in Oxford County, Cumberland and Hancock Counties.

The effort ended on the fifth day of counting. During the recount, somewhere around eight to 10 state employees were on hand, at a total estimated cost of over 300 hours.

Julie Flynn of the Secretary of State's Office said that her department didn't lay out money to cover the costs of the recount, but said that the effort pulled state employees away from other tasks.

"I can't tell you there's a direct outlay." said Flynn. "There certainly are what I would call opportunity costs. If they're over there, they're not doing other work that needs to be done."

She also noted that there is a cost borne by the Maine State Police, who were responsible for transporting ballots to Augusta.

The official tally is now 284,934 votes in favor of a casino, and 280,211 opposed.

"Recounts are vital to the integrity of Maine's elections process," said Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. "Even when the outcome of an election does not change - as was true of all seven recounts conducted this year - recounts help to assure that all election participants can have the highest level of confidence that the results fully and accurately reflect the will of the voters."