No word yet on Philly casino ballot question

I feel more than a little guilty now about not being more involved in the mayoral primary this past Tuesday. I will be for sure this fall during the general election for mayor, as well as the Pennsylvania Presidential Primary next spring.

Anyway, thanks to my friend Lisa, I heard about this before going to the polls yesterday, and I e-mailed a few friends and blogged about this. A question about where casinos can be located was kicked off the ballot after a casino company filed suit, but that didn't stop people opposed to having casinos near our schools, homes and churches. A "write-in" campaign was waged, with many people stationed outside polling places, as well as a Website where Philly voters could go and vote.

Ballot #1 question read:
"Should the City of Philadelphia keep casino slots parlors 1,500 feet away from schools, residential neighborhoods, playgrounds, and places of worship?"

I voted online, (there wasn't a "Ballot #1 box" outside of my particular polling place) but many people were voting in the voting booth by pressing "Yes" over top of the sticker that read "Ballot question removed by court order."

The city is not only counting these rogue votes, but it's reporting them as well, and the results are encouraging.

With 96.25% 1618/1681 Precincts Completed, the tally is:
835 (69.93%) voted YES in favor of a 1500-foot buffer, and 359 (30.07%) voted NO.

The official announcement of the votes will take place on May 19 at 10 a.m. For more information, go to Casino-Free Philadelphia's Website. I urge all Philadelphians to take part in this effort. The last thing this city needs right now are casinos, and I don't care what the money that will be raised is going for. Casinos bring a whole lot of bad things with them, including increased crime, and the last thing this city needs right now is more crime.

Here's a pretty good video from Casino-Free Philly's Website. I got a kick out of it - it underscores the absurdity of the casino bosses and their PR efforts.

On balance, I've been more happy than unhappy with Governor Ed Rendell's administration, but he's got it all wrong with casinos, an idea he's been pimping since before he became governor. I have absolutely no proof to substantiate this, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's getting paid off in one way or another for bringing casinos to Pennsylvania.