Non-Partisan Watchdog Group Calls Ballot into Question

Annapolis, MD – Today in a letter to the editor in the Baltimore Sun, the President of the League of Women Voters of Maryland, one of the most well respected and authoritative non-partisan voter education groups in the state, declared the current wording of Question 2 - the Slots Constitutional Amendment neither balanced or complete with the potential to be misleading. See the complete letter below.

Marylanders United strongly agrees, and applauds the League for speaking out on this important issue.

Baltimore Sun
LTE: Referendum's wording could mislead voters
September 2, 2008
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.letters02s20sep02,0,1299497.story

The wording of the ballot question relating to the constitutional amendment authorizing video lottery terminals may be misleading to voters ("Slots opponents drafting suit over ballot wording," Aug. 26).

As drafted by the secretary of state, the wording of the ballot question states that the constitutional amendment would authorize the state to issue slots licenses "for the purpose of raising revenue for education of children in public schools," and goes on to describe a number of the various ways in which this money will be spent on education.

However, legislation enacted by the General Assembly at the same time it enacted the legislation authorizing this referendum lists the specific ways the proceeds from slots would be distributed, and less than half of those proceeds (48.5 percent) would go to the education trust fund.

Our General Assembly decided to allow Maryland voters to decide whether slots revenue is an appropriate way to fund a variety of programs, including public education.

Our legislators may have intended that the purpose of the slots referendum would be to raise revenue for public education. But legislation they passed clearly states that public education is not the only beneficiary of funds the slots would raise.

To make an informed decision, voters should have balanced and complete information about what their vote will mean.

The wording of this ballot question does not provide such balanced and complete information.

Lu Pierson, Annapolis. The writer is president of the League of Women Voters of Maryland.