Absentee votes cause slot measure to pass

Single Sign-On: You can use Facebook account to log in to LasVegasSun.com. (We will use your first and last name from your profile.)
Trusted Commenting: Facebook connected users automatically become trusted commenters.

Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A proposal that would let voters decide whether to allow slot machines at race tracks and jai alai frontons in South Florida won approval after elections officials discovered thousands of absentee votes missed in an electronic tally on Election Day.

The vast majority of the 79,000 absentee ballots added late in Broward County approved the initiative Thursday. That made all the difference in the outcome, swamping the narrow lead that opponents had clung to since Tuesday.

State and local elections officials said the ballot oversight was due to human error in computer programming, not a technical glitch. A leader of No Casinos said opponents would ask Broward County for a re-count anyway, but Secretary of State Glenda Hood said that wasn't possible under state law.

Passage of Amendment 4 means Broward and Miami-Dade commissions can ask their voters in a referendum if they want to allow slot machines at seven tracks and jai alai frontons.