September 5, 2014

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- The vote on Amendment 1, the Right to Farm amendment, stayed the same in Stoddard County after a recount Thursday morning at Stoddard County Clerk Joe Watson's office. The vote tally in the August election in the county was 2,955 for the amendment and 1,907 against it. That total was the same after the recount...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- The vote on Amendment 1, the Right to Farm amendment, stayed the same in Stoddard County after a recount Thursday morning at Stoddard County Clerk Joe Watson's office. The vote tally in the August election in the county was 2,955 for the amendment and 1,907 against it. That total was the same after the recount.

The first day allowed by Secretary of State Jason Kander's office was Thursday. Counties and election districts across the state have until Sept. 11 to perform the recounts. Kander will certify the election results on Sept. 15.

The Right to Farm amendment was generally backed by all the major farming groups in the state, but was opposed by some smaller farmers and animal rights groups. Factions on both sides spent considerable money on advertising prior to the Aug. 5 election. The closeness of the margin of victory for the amendment drew a request for a recount.

Statewide races are only eligible for a recount when results are separated by less than one-half of one percent of total votes cast. Of 996,672 votes cast on Constitutional Amendment 1, there were 499,581 "yes" votes and 497,091 "no" votes, for a difference of 0.24 percent.

The recount was requested by Wes Shoemyer on behalf of Missouri's Food for America. Constitutional Amendment 1 will be represented by Dan Kleinsorge on behalf of Missouri Farmers Care.

Similar right-to-farm measures have previously won approval in North Dakota and Indiana.

Missouri Farm Bureau president Blake Hurst said the apparent narrow victory in the August election was evidence that opponents "failed to convince people that the thousands of Missouri family farms supporting this amendment were tools of foreign or corporate interests."

Opponent Rhonda Perry, a Howard County livestock and grain farmer and program director for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, said, "This is an unnecessary corporate takeover of our state constitution that forever guarantees the rights of corporations to write their own rules and bypass democracy and local control."

Watson said the recount began at 8 a.m. and was concluded at 10:30 a.m. He noted that the voting tally machine is not capable of recounting only one issue on the ballot, so the entire ballot was recounted. Watson said his office did not look at any of the other races or issues on the ballot.

No statewide or local totals had been released on the recount of Amendment 1 as of Thursday afternoon.

The cost of the recount is to be paid by the state as long as it falls within appropriated amounts, Watson said.

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