Voter Control of Gambling in Florida is about 41,000 signatures short of making the November ballot only three weeks before the deadline of February 1st. The signatures are needed to support the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow local voters to made decisions on possible gambling expansion in the state.
As revealed in the ballot summary, the voter control amendment is expected to provide the voters in the state of Florida with the exclusive rights to make decisions in terms of authorization of casino gambling in the state. If Voter Control of Gambling makes the ballot, then 60% of the voters would be required to approve it in order to pass.
As of the beginning of the week, the Voter Control of Gambling in Florida gathered a total of 725,942 valid signatures. An overall number of 766,200 is needed in order for the ballot to be made, a number which equalled to 8% of the most recent presidential elections’ results.
The proposed constitutional amendments also require 14 signature quotas to be hit in the 27 congressional districts across the state of Florida. As of yesterday, a 12 seats mark has been reached, with congressional districts 17 and 22 each being approximately 5,000 signatures short of the necessary quota.
Voters in Charge Committee Get Financial Support for the Ballot
The Supreme Court of Florida earlier gave the nod to the ballot placement amendment which had been required by the Voters in Charge Committee.
The Committee, which has been supporting the bill, had revealed that a total of 1.1 million signatures would have to be gathered before the verified signature requirement is exceeded. The committee group had managed to gather a million signatures as of November. In addition, approximately $5 million were spent by Voters in Charge to push the constitutional amendment as of the end of November.
A massive amount of that money were donated by Disney Worldwide Services, which also backed the possible changes in local gambling landscape in order to expand it. According to a finance report filed in November 2017, Disney had donated about $3 million in order to support the proposed measure.
As Casino Guardian has earlier reported, the Seminole Tribe of Florida provided its support for the anti-gambling legislation amendment for the ballot. It invested $1 million in the process, with the funding aimed to be used to back the group’s constitutional amendment. The Seminole Tribe already operates a number of casinos, not to mention the fact that it holds the exclusive rights to offer certain types of gambling activities in the state, such as the game of blackjack.
A large amount of that money has been redirected to the National Voter Outreach based in the state of Nevada. Another significant portion has been paid out to the county’s supervisors of elections for signature verification.
- Author
Daniel Williams
