The 2019 legislative general session was a miss for lottery proponents. Despite the Senate’s narrow passage of a lottery bill, the House could not come together for passage of its own version.
For that reason, Alabamians will not get to vote on a lottery on the March 2020 primary ballots. However, it could be coming eight months later on the 2020 general election ballot.
During his weekly appearance on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) agreed with host Dale Jackson, who suggested the possibility that if the legislature could agree on a lottery proposal during the 2020 general session, a vote of the people could be forthcoming.
“Absolutely, the November 2020, it would be a vote of the people,” Orr concurred.
One potential concern for the GOP raised was the possibility a lottery vote on a general election ballot could turn out more Democrats than usual. Orr said with President Donald Trump on the ballot, the lottery on the ballot should not be a significant factor.
“[Y]es, it could bring out votes that would maybe trend to also vote Democrat,” he said. “But being a presidential year, most people that are going to vote are going to vote anyway, and of the 140 legislators in the legislature – I don’t know how many are Republican, we’ll say 110 total – they’re not on the ballot. Then the statewide officers are not on the ballot in 2020. It wouldn’t affect any of them. It’s just the U.S. Senate race that would affect. And you would think that Donald Trump would certainly carry Alabama in the presidential race, it could impact that Senate race, but I think the Republican is going to wipe it up with [Doug] Jones.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
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