D.C. Petition Drive For Slots on Ballot Allowed to Proceed

The D.C. Board of Elections cleared the way yesterday for canvassers to begin collecting signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to bring slot machines to the District.

City leaders and community activists had sought to stop the drive before it started, with action such as a lawsuit arguing that legalizing slots is not a proper subject for an initiative in the District. But with the approval of petitions, residents could start getting requests to sign their names to support slot machines any day now.

The goal is to get the initiative on the November ballot.

A political action committee, financed by offshore gambling promoters, was stymied in its effort to bring legalized gambling to the District two years ago because of widespread election law violations, including fraud, that led the board to levy a $622,000 fine against the committee, the largest in the elections board's history.

Wilma A. Lewis, chairman of the board, told gambling proponents to be more careful this time. "I urge you to be vigilant with your respect for and adherence to the laws of the District of Columbia," she said during a hearing.

Jeffrey D. Robinson, an attorney for slots promoters, promised to do just that. "We're going to make sure people have the appropriate training," he said.

The proposal would put up to 3,500 slot machines near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE. Tomorrow's Hope LLC, a partnership with ties to gambling promoters, has purchased part of the property for $875,000, according to city records.

City leaders, including Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), are cool to the idea, arguing that the plan could result in unforeseen costs and hurt the Anacostia Gateway project, an ambitious development to revitalize historic Anacostia that broke ground this year.

"The mayor is not a supporter of slots at all in any form," said Vince Morris, Williams's spokesman. "He's not wildly enthusiastic about gambling, either, but he respects the democratic process. We need to see how it plays. We know how it played out last time."

There's also the looming issue of what Congress might do if the District approves slots. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who opposes slots, said in a statement yesterday that the approval of slots could provoke congressional intervention.

The previous effort never made it to voters because election officials found that slots supporters committed fraud, forgery and other election law violations during a weeklong petition drive. This time, there's little more than three weeks to collect about 19,000 signatures.

Like the previous effort, this one is financed by Shawn Scott, an entrepreneur based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who backed a different political action committee to push this effort.

Activist Dorothy Brizill, a staunch opponent of slots, argued unsuccessfully yesterday that the board should hold the latest group to the more stringent oversight requirements it imposed on the 2004 group.

Brizill is among community activists who continue to press a lawsuit in the D.C. Court of Appeals that seeks to overturn the elections board decision that the measure is legitimate. City law does not allow a voter initiative that would force the city to spend additional money or that might clash with other laws -- something that Brizill and some city leaders argue would occur if this measure prevails.

A D.C. Superior Court judge rejected that argument in a ruling last week. As a result, Robinson, the slots promoters' attorney, said the board had no choice but to move forward.

Those collecting signatures must be D.C. residents. The elections board offers free classes to candidates and groups that have to collect signatures to get on the ballot. About 50 people have attended classes this year. The next class is June 28.