Casino plan deleted from D.C. ballot

Heather Greenfield

Friday, Aug. 6, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A proposal to put a casino in the nation's capital was knocked off the ballot Thursday by election officials who accused supporters of flouting the law.

"They turned the law of the District of Columbia on its head," said Wilma A. Lewis, chair of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics.

Lewis -- a former U.S. attorney -- denounced the group's tactics, accusing them of using nonresidents to gather signatures, and of false advertising to try and get people to sign petitions. She said the board got a picture of the signature gathering process through sworn witness testimony and its own investigation.

"It revealed a process, a significant portion of which was fatally flawed," Lewis said, telling organizers there was an overall lack of oversight of the petition circulators. The board will issue a full report next week.

Organizers wanted the proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot. Had voters approved, it would have cleared the way for construction of a $510 million, 14-acre complex in a rundown area about 3 miles northeast of the U.S. Capitol. It would have included 3,500 video lottery terminals, along with a hotel, stores and restaurants. Supporters said the project would have generated about 1,500 jobs and produce $210 million in local tax revenues.

Backers needed 17,599 valid signatures, including five percent of the registered voters in five of the city's eight wards. Despite submitting more than 50,000 signatures, the board ruled only 14,687 were valid. The ward requirement fell two wards short.

Businessman Pedro Alfonso, a key casino backer, said he would not give up. His lawyer, John Ray, said he would be at the D.C. Court of Appeals on Friday to file a notice of appeal.

"We won some, they won some, the game is still in play," Ray said, acknowledging some mistakes were made, but insisting they were not condoned.

The decision came as little surprise. Two days earlier, the board rejected more than half of the signatures, following more than a week of testimony on allegations of fraud. That decision came in response to challenges filed by Dorothy Brizill, founder of the government reform group D.C. Watch, and lawyer Ronald Drake.

"They thought they had the manpower and the finances to get away with it, and they didn't," Brizill said Thursday.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams and several members of Congress and the D.C. Council also oppose the casino plan.