Group that sought issue wants it pulled from ballot

July 3, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By MARC KOVAC

COLUMBUS

A group that successfully sued the state to allow a November ballot issue rejecting Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposal to place slot machines at horse-racing tracks has asked the Secretary of State’s Office to pull the referendum from the ballot.

LetOhioVote.org cited voters’ approval of Ohio casinos and Strickland’s plans to seek a court opinion on his authority to allow video-lottery terminals at the tracks among its reasons for dropping the issue.

According to a letter submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office, “In light of these subsequent developments, the committee believes that its ultimate goal — that new gaming proposals be subjected to a thorough and thoughtful review — will be achieved and, therefore, a referendum on the VLT legislation is no longer necessary.”

In a released statement, committee member Tom Brinkman added, “We successfully defended Ohioans’ referendum rights with our victory in the Ohio Supreme Court last year, and then the voters approved a casino-gambling amendment. 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 VLTs.”

The decision came after LetOhioVote.org submitted more than 240,000 valid petition signatures to the state to put the issue before voters.

Strickland earlier abandoned the slots plan for the immediate future, saying legal challenges did not make it a realistic option for dealing with the state’s budget issues.

Kevin Kidder, spokesman for the secretary of state, said the letter was all that was needed to pull the issue from the ballot.

The referendum was the only statewide issue set for the general election.