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'Right To Farm' Opponents Prepare For Recount

The HSUS

Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander has granted opponents to the so-called “right to farm amendment” a recount, but those hoping to overturn the amendment have modest expectations.

Amendment 1 passed by just less than a quarter of one percent of the popular vote. Nearly a million votes cast. It enshrines the right to engage in agricultural endeavors in the state constitution.

Wes Shoemyer, a farmer and organizer of Amendment 1 opposition group Missouri’s Food for America, asked for the recount. He acknowledges that it will be tough to gain enough votes to defeat the amendment. But, he said he felt opponents worked hard enough during the campaign that they need to try to reverse the vote. 

“There’s great opportunity to pick votes up, so we’re going to find out. What we’re trying to do now is prepare our people to be poll watchers. And if we need to contest some ballots, we’ll be prepared to do that," he said. One place his organization will look to gain votes is in from provisional ballots in urban areas, he said.

If the amendment’s passage is upheld by the recount, Missouri will join North Dakota as the only two states pass a right to farm amendment.  

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