Editorial: Listen to voters on Choctaw casino

Friday, November 16, 2007  

"The Jackson County Board of Supervisors should vote to back results of the Nov. 6 election on the Choctaw casino proposal.

The Choctaw proposal lost with about 60 percent of the ballots cast in the election opposing the casino. The catch to the election is that the Choctaw casino question was a nonbinding referendum. After the vote, tribal leader Miko Beasley Denson said the Choctaws will continue to pursue locating a casino in Jackson County.

The opinion of voters does count and can be reinforced by supervisors passing a resolution in support of the Nov. 6 vote at their next meeting, Nov. 26. The resolution would be the beginning of local officials expressing their opinion on the Choctaw casino to the governor and Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The voters have made this easy for the supervisors. Prior to the vote, it was not clear whether Jackson County citizens approved or disapproved of a casino.

There are those who may discount the vote by arguing that a few thousand ballots supporting the casino would have changed the results. There was equal chance to cast ballots Nov. 6, however, and the casino lost. The balloting speaks clearly to the supervisors about the county's opinion.

It is now up to the Board of Supervisors to lend its official stamp to the casino vote."

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Editorial: Supervisors should listen to the voters on Choctaw casino (The Mississippi Press 11/16)