Daily Brew: September 27, 2018

September 27, 2018

Today's Brew brings you up to speed on Missouri's Amendment 1 + the latest on the farm bill   Welcome to the Thursday, September 27 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: When will 2018 vote totals be certified in your state? Update: Missouri Supreme Court declines to take up a case regarding Amendment 1's constitutionality, keeping the initiative on the ballot Deadline to approve a new farm bill approaches When will 2018 vote totals be certified in your state? Our teams have been tracking November battleground races, so we think there will be a few tight vote margins on election night. This means there could be a few races in which we won’t know a winner until results have been officially certified by the states. Here’s how the certification system works. Once the final votes have been cast on Nov. 6, the states will begin certifying and finalizing vote tallies. The process varies from state to state, and each state establishes different deadlines for final certification of election results. Delaware's certification date is Nov. 8, the earliest in the nation. Most of the remaining states set certification deadlines throughout November and December, and the latest is Jan. 9, 2019, for executive offices in Nebraska. Six states do not specify a certification date. How does your state compare? Update: Missouri Supreme Court declines to take up case regarding Amendment 1's constitutionality, keeping the initiative on the ballot On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to take on a case that argued that Amendment 1's provisions violated the state's single-subject rule. Therefore, Amendment 1 will appear on the general election ballot in November. Amendment 1 would make changes to the state's lobbying laws, campaign finance limits for state legislative candidates, and legislative redistricting process. As we’ve been discussing here in the past few weeks, the lawsuit against Amendment 1 began in the Cole County Circuit Court, which ruled that Amendment 1 violated the single-subject rule by addressing two subjects: ethics and the structure of the state General Assembly. The PAC behind Amendment 1, Clean Missouri, said its ballot initiative addressed a single subject — state legislative ethics. Clean Missouri appealed the ruling to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District. On September 21, the Court of Appeals reversed the Circuit Court's ruling, allowing Amendment 1 to appear on the ballot. The ruling stated, “Construing the initiative petition ‘liberally and non-restrictively,’ we conclude that the petition’s multiple provisions all relate to a single central purpose: regulating the legislature to limit the influence of partisan or other special interests.” With the lawsuit settled, the list of statewide ballot measures is set in Missouri; eight measures will appear on the ballot. Read Missouri Amendment 1: Lobbying, Refinance, and Redistricting Initiative→ Deadline to approve a new farm bill approaches Federal funding allocated under the Agricultural Act of 2014, a.k.a. the “farm bill,” runs out on Sunday. The Senate and House are working to reconcile differences between versions of the bill passed by each chamber in June. The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 includes funding for commodity support, conservation, trade and international food aid, nutrition assistance, farm credit, rural development, research and extension activities, forestry, horticulture, and crop insurance. The main difference between the Senate and House versions of the bill concerns the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Unlike the Senate version, the House version would require most able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 59 without young children to work at least 20 hours per week to receive benefits. The Senate bill does, however, propose administrative changes to the SNAP program to prevent fraud, unlike the House bill. With the September 30 deadline approaching, an extension of the previous farm bill has not yet been proposed. Track our coverage of federal policy on agriculture and food →