And you thought the election was over.
The grassroots group Oxford Hills NO on 1 and CasinosNO!, a political action committee that has opposed all casinos in Maine in recent years, have joined to officially request a recount of last week’s Oxford County casino referendum.
“If we didn’t do it, we’d always wonder if we should have,” said Dennis Bailey of CasinosNO!. “The bottom line is, we owe it to people.”
The third Oxford County casino opposition group, Citizens Against the Oxford Casino, is not involved in the recount request. That political action committee is backed by Penn National Gaming, the Passamaquoddy tribe and the Maine Harness Horsemen’s Association, among others.
To officially request a recount, Oxford Hills NO on 1 and CasinosNO! had to present the Secretary of State’s Office with a petition signed by at least 100 people who voted in last week’s election. The deadline to request a recount was 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The two groups delivered 153 signatures shortly before deadline. The signatures must now be certified by the state. If they’re found valid, the Secretary of State’s Office will meet with representatives from both sides of the referendum to go over the rules and requirements of a recount.
Because the Secretary of State’s Office is already dealing with a number of candidate recounts and because Maine State Police will have to retrieve ballots statewide and deliver them to the recount site, a recount likely won’t be scheduled until after Thanksgiving. Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn estimated a recount — which would be done by hand — could take 30 days to complete.
It was unclear how much a recount would cost the state. When the difference between yes and no votes is less than 2 percent, the recount is done at no cost to the person or group requesting it. Although the Secretary of State’s Office has not yet officially tabulated the results of the casino referendum, unofficial results have the two sides separated by about 5,600 votes, which is 1 percent of the more than 559,000 people who voted.
Referendum opponents and proponents must each have representatives involved in the recount. Oxford Hills NO on 1 and CasinosNO! believe they could largely staff a 30-day recount with volunteers. But Peter Martin, government relations adviser for Black Bear Entertainment, the company seeking to build a $165 million casino resort in Oxford, said it could cost his group $50,000 to hire representatives and a lawyer to be there.
Martin was not pleased about a possible recount.
“I believe every Maine citizen on either side of this issue should be outraged that a recount is being requested,” he said. “The likelihood of over 5,000 votes being overturned is almost not measurable for success. It’s extremely, extremely unlikely.”
He believes a turnover in the results is so unlikely that the casino-opposition groups shouldn’t request a recount, but, he said a turnover is just likely enough that his group would halt plans to hire engineers and others until the recount is settled.
“Every day that the process is delayed, it stops us from hiring people that could be working on this and creating jobs,” Martin said. “Until the secretary of state certifies this initiative as complete and done, it’s always prudent to take a conservative position. That’s, unfortunately, what we need to do.”
Scott Vlaun of Oxford Hills No on 1 acknowledged that the recount may not overturn the casino’s yes vote. But he said his group had to try.
“Stranger things have happened,” he said. “We want to make sure the vote count is accurate.”
The last referendum recount was held in 1995, when the United Bikers of Maine requested a recount in a referendum that created a mandatory seat belt law, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. About 3,000 votes separated yes and no in that vote. The United Bikers of Maine conceded after a few days of counting.
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