Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . In the sandy hills along Interstate 95 where South Carolina's closely watched lottery referendum will likely turn, both sides are urging voters to make the right moral choice. Churches want to strike a blow against gambling. We've got a lot of money going across state lines to lotteries. The school system definitely needs some help.
Republicans contend much of that can be paid for without a lottery.
You've got your morality reasons first. Scott Merriweather, leaning on the other side of the truck's hood, figures people are going to gamble anyway and even he plays the lotteries sometimes in Georgia and Florida. A recent Mason-Dixon poll found 48 percent of registered South Carolina voters questioned support a lottery while 41 percent opposed it. The poll, with a 4 percent margin of error, found 11 percent undecided. Kevin Geddings, who runs the South Carolina Education Lottery Coalition for Hodges, believes for the lottery to win it'll need large numbers of black voters.