Raleigh, N.C. — For weeks, supporters of a lottery in North Carolina searched for the one vote they needed to finally bring a numbers game to the only state on the East Coast without one.
In the end, it was a lack of two votes that got the state into the gambling business.
Two senators, both Republicans who were part of the coalition that held firm for weeks against the lottery, didn't make it to Raleigh on Tuesday. One was on his honeymoon while the other was sick.
It was the break supporters had been waiting for. Casting a rare vote, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, the Senate's presiding officer, sided with most of her Democratic colleagues in breaking a 24-24 tie.
Gov. Mike Easley is expected today to sign the legislation creating the lottery, a cause he's championed since his election in 2001.
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