On June 9 Jefferson County voters were asked whether to allow table gaming at Charles Town Racing and Slots. (Observer, June 2007). The answer was a resounding “no.”
While the countywide margins, at 56 to 44 percent against, have been widely described as a landslide, some precincts were even more one-sided than others (see table).
In particular, the Shepherdstown voting district came out hugely against the table gaming initiative. Of the almost 2,000 votes cast in the Shepherdstown area, over 65 percent voted against the referendum, with a whopping 73 percent voting “no” in downtown Shepherdstown. Only two districts voted for the referendum, Charles Town and Kabletown. Both of these voted only marginally in favor of the table gaming.
Also of interest was that the election attracted 10,000 voters, about 31 percent of the county’s registered voters. This is considered a huge turnout for a special election. In contrast, the controversial 2005 school levy special election drew only 2,032 voters while the 2006 general election drew 49 percent of registered voters.
Shepherdstown precincts accounted for 20 percent of the total vote in the table games referendum. In addition, there appears to be a trend toward early voting in the county: In the 2005 special election, early voting accounted for just 466 votes; at the general election in 2006, it was 2,400 votes; early voting on the table gaming referendum accounted for 3,600 votes.