A Look at the Table Games Vote

West Virginia waits for its largest county to canvass the votes from the weekend's gambling referendum, amid word that 64 overlooked ballots join more than 500 provisional (challenged) ballots as likely to change the 33-vote margin outcome.

Starting Friday, Kanawha County will audit the results from all 175 of its precincts to determine whether Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center will keep its ever-so-slight lead in favor of allowing casino table games.

The Associated Press reported on Monday's ballot discovery. Others offering the latest news include Public Broadcasting, MetroNews (with related stories here and here), The Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail.

An earlier post broke down the voting by each of Kanawha County's voting districts. Here are some additional tidbits:

Best Turnout: Cross Lanes, which hosts the traffic to and from Tri-State. Turnout exceeded 45 percent, compared to less than 36 percent countywide. (Out of 3,868 ballots cast there, there were 284 more "no" votes than "yes" votes.)

Worst Turnout: Montgomery, on the other end of the county. Just 91 voters showed up, for a 20 percent turnout.

Top Support: West Dunbar, with 70 percent of 280 voters supporting table games (but also second-worst turnout, at 20.3 percent).

Top Opposition: Tad, which cast 192 of 263 votes against table games (turnout there just exceeded the average, with 37 percent).

Other numbers:

* "Yes" votes outnumbered noes in just 12 of the 34 communities in the county.

* In the 8 communities that contributed 1,000 or more votes, table games prevailed in Charleston, Dunbar (by 3 votes) South Charleston and Nitro (which annexed the track several years ago), but failed in Cross Lanes, Elkview, Sissonville and St. Albans.

* As the county's dominant city, Charleston provided a 2,296-vote edge for table games (out of 16,902 votes cast there).

* The Sissonville precinct that failed to count the 64 ballots rejected table games 35 percent to 65 percent. Breaking down the overlooked votes by those percentages would leave Tri-State with a 15-vote margin of victory.

Also, The Journal of Martinsburg examines whether the Legislature might sweeten the table games deal for Jefferson County, which rejected the initiative in a June special election.