Voters Strongly Reject Lottery

Alabama voters soundly rejected the governor’s appeal for a lottery. With 94% of precincts reporting, 633,681 people, or 54%, had voted against the lottery, and 529,964 people, or 46%, were for it. The lottery was once thought to be a sure bet to be approved, but it came under fire from church groups that said it would exploit the poor. Some opponents also claimed that a recent traffic ticket-fixing scandal showed that Gov. Donald Siegelman’s administration could not be trusted to oversee gambling. Siegelman, a Democrat, had made the lottery the cornerstone of his successful campaign last year against GOP incumbent Gov. Fob James.