LITTLE ROCK — The state Supreme Court killed the last of two casino constitutional amendment proposals Thursday, ruling that votes cast on it will not be counted because how the measure is described on the ballot is significantly changed from the way it was described to voters who signed petitions to put it on the ballot.
The sponsor of the amendment, Nancy Todd’s Poker Palace and Entertainment Venues LLC, “altered the text of their ballot title after collecting tens of thousands of signatures,” the court said. The “revised ballot title is clearly something different than their original ballot title.”
The opinion was written by Justice Jim Gunter. There was no dissent.
At the Supreme Court the case is Walmsley v. Martin. The suit was brought by Bill Walmsley of Batesville, Darrell Meyer of Hot Springs and Bill McDowell, who filed the lawsuit individually and on behalf of the Arkansas Racing Alliance, a ballot-question committee that received $80,000 from the Oaklawn Jockey Club to defeat the measure.
Nancy Todd proposed to revise the ballot title to state that the proposed constitutional amendment may repeal the Electronic Games of Skill Act, which would prohibit Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Park in West Memphis from operating casino like electronic “games of skill.”
The ballot title is what voters see on the ballot. The popular title and the text of the constitutional amendment were not changed.
Todd spent nearly $82,000 to get the measure on the ballot. Todd and her attorney had called the change to the ballot title an immaterial revision that simply clarified what voters would see on Election Day.
But the court cited Amendment 7 to the Arkansas Constitution, which states, “At the time of filing petitions the exact title to be used in the ballot ... shall be submitted.”
It also pointed to Arkansas Code Annotated 7-9-106, which requires a full and correct copy of the ballot title and the measure be attached to the petitions signed by voters.
“The ballot title is not an extraneous luxury, but is part and parcel of any valid initiative petition,” the opinion states. “The purpose of the ballot title is to allow a voter to reach an intelligent and informed decision for or against the proposal and to understand the consequences of his or her vote.”
Walmsley’s attorney, Elisabeth Robben Murray of Little Rock, said the court made the narrowest ruling it could.
“We are very, very pleased with the court’s ruling,” Murray said. “I think that it is the only logical ruling under Amendment 7.”
The ballot title and the popular name of the measure were certified by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel in April. In June, Todd submitted signatures to the secretary of state in support of getting the measure on the ballot.
The signatures of 78,133 registered voters are required to qualify a proposed amendment for the ballot.
Only 23,616 of the signatures submitted by Todd were found to belong to registered Arkansas voters, and she was given 30 days to replace the rejected signatures. On Sept.14, the secretary of state’s office verified that she had turned in more than the necessary number of signatures.
On July 16, the chairman of the Southland-funded Stop Casinos Now! Committee, Chuck Lange, challenged the legal sufficiency of the ballot title through an administrative petition with the secretary of state. On Aug. 14, McDaniel responded that the amendment’s implied repeal of the Electronic Games of Skill Act should have been expressly stated in the ballot title. On Aug. 15, Secretary of State Mark Martin declared the measure legally insufficient to be on the ballot.
Todd submitted the amended ballot title, which the secretary of state and attorney general said was still insufficient.
Todd said she was disappointed and surprised by Thursday’s decision.
“220,000 people’s voices are not going to be heard,” she said, referring to the total number of signatures she collected.
Todd said she needs to assess the court’s decision before she decides what to do.
“I’m not really looking into the future,” Todd said. “I honestly couldn’t tell you what I did wrong or could have done differently in 2012.”
In a news release Thursday, Lange thanked supporters “who stood up to protect our families and communities from the terrible realities that would have come from Todd’s Vegas-style Poker Palace monopoly.”
The measure will still appear on the ballot as Issue 3, but the court ordered Martin to not count ballots cast.
The court has previously rejected a second proposed constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling. That measure will also appear on the ballot, but no votes will be counted.
The Todd measure would have allowed Nancy Todd’s Poker Palace and Entertainment Venues LLC to own and operate a casino in each of Pulaski, Miller, Franklin and Crittenden counties.
As a result of Thursday’s ruling, the court dismissed a second suit in which Todd had challenged Martin’s determination that the amendment’s revised ballot title was insufficient.
Gov. Mike Beebe said he planned to vote against the measure.
“I never liked it anyway because it kind of gave some exclusivity to out-of-state folks- my information was it was out of state - and it wasn’t being sold that way to a whole lot of people,” Beebe said. “It was misleading, the ballot title versus the guts.”
Beebe said he didn’t plan to campaign against the measure, which he said he didn’t think voters would support.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/05/2012