Ohio group drops ballot challenge to track slots

Monday’s Columbus Dispatch is reporting that a ballot challenge to a plan that would allow slot machines at racetracks in Ohio that was previously proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland is being dropped by the group that organized the petition drive.

 

Although LetOhioVote.org had gathered more than 320,000 valid signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot and let the voters decide, its leaders decided that a combination of the passage of a constitutional amendment last November that authorized four casinos Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, as well as Strickland’s statements that he would seek court approval for his plan, was enough to prompt the withdrawal.

 

"With our primary goals accomplished, it seems imprudent to proceed with a campaign that can be easily rendered moot by a court decision or new legislation authorizing (video slot machines)," LetOhioVote.org’s Tom Brinkman Jr. said in a statement.