Scarborough Downs is considering relocating, now that a recount on Tuesday confirmed town voters did not want slots at the track, says a harness racing insider.

“They are exploring other avenues and other places,” said former House District 131 Rep. Don Marean of Hollis, who said he is also considering becoming a lobbyist for the Maine harness racing industry. “It’s speculation as to where they’re going, but they are talking to some different towns, cities and communities.”

Scarborough Downs officials referred all phone calls to the track’s attorney, Ed MacColl. He did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment for this story.

Scarborough officials spent a full day last week hand counting more than 11,000 ballots that ultimately confirmed the voters’ rejection of slots at the Downs.

The recount result was 5,797 to 5,557, said Scarborough Town Clerk Tody Justice.

The proposal to develop 535 acres owned by the track originally lost by just 239 votes, 5,565 to 5,804, in an election that drew a record number to the polls. The vote had a cliffhanger ending: Because a ballot machine malfunctioned, results were not available until the day after Election Day.

On Tuesday, poll watchers challenged eight ballots and eight ballots were disputed, Justice said. Those votes were discounted.

“They wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the vote,” Justice said.

The vote puts the Downs at a crossroads, Marean said, but he said any decision the Downs makes will ultimately help the harness racing industry.

“I’ve been in this industry for 25 years, and I personally think the state of the harness industry is the best it’s been,” Marean said. “I would say that if Scarborough were to relocate and get online with slots, the industry would flourish even more.”

Some industry insiders said they have heard southern Maine is a possibility for a new track.

“I think people in the industry are shocked that the town of Scarborough could be that short-sighted,” Denise McKnit, head veterinarian with Blackstrap Hill Veterinary Clinic in Cumberland, which works closely with the Maine harness racing industry, said just before the election. “I know Sanford has been mentioned.”

MacColl and racino project developer Gene Beaudoin inspected the ballots on Nov. 17 after the Downs submitted a 100-signature petition requesting the inspection.

The Nov. 4 vote was the second defeat for slot machines in Scarborough.

Downs officials had proposed adding slots to the track as part of a $200 million commercial and residential development that would have given the town a center and $8 million in annual revenues.

Pitched by Beaudoin, the Connecticut developer who was instrumental in bringing a Cabela’s outdoor sporting goods store to town, the proposal had the backing of Penn National Gaming Inc., which spent more than $60,000 on a campaign in support of the project.

A law passed by statewide referendum in 2003 allows slot machines at existing harness-racing tracks with local approval, leading to Hollywood Slots at the state’s other harness-racing track in Bangor. Scarborough Downs, however, has found it much more difficult to win approval in southern Maine. Saco and Westbrook have also rejected proposals to allow slot machines associated with the Downs.

“Thank God for Bangor,” Marean said. “We had all hoped that Scarborough would get it, but the industry is moving along.”

An election official tallies the votes by hand Tuesday morning at the Scarborough Town Hall.