(A) Within ninety days after approving an agricultural commodity marketing program proposed on or after the effective date of this amendment, or a proposed amendment to an agricultural commodity marketing program, the director of agriculture shall determine by a referendum whether the eligible producers favor the proposed marketing program or amendment. Any such marketing program or amendment to a marketing program is favored by the producers of the agricultural commodity that would be affected by the proposed program or amendment if a majority of the producers who vote in the referendum vote in favor of the program or amendment.

(B) If the producers who vote in any referendum held pursuant to this section do not favor a proposed marketing program, or proposed amendment to a program, the director shall hold no additional referendum on that proposed program or proposed amendment during the ten months following the close of the referendum at which the producers did not favor that proposed program or amendment.

(C) In any referendum held pursuant to this section, each eligible producer of the agricultural commodity that would be affected by the proposed marketing program, or amendment to a program, is entitled to one vote.

(D) In any referendum held on an agricultural commodity marketing program, or a proposed amendment to such a program, votes may be cast in person or by mailing a ballot to a polling place designated by the director. The director shall establish a three-day period during which eligible producers may vote in person during normal business hours at polling places designated by the director. The director or other appropriate person shall send a mail-in ballot by ordinary first-class mail to any eligible producer who requests one by calling the toll-free telephone number or sending in the ballot request form provided for in division (E) of this section, by calling one of the polling places designated by the director, or by any additional method that the director or operating committee may provide. No ballot returned by mail shall be valid if it is postmarked later than the third day of the election period established by the director.

(E) For any referendum held on an agricultural commodity marketing program, or a proposed amendment to such a program, the director or operating committee shall cause a ballot request form to be published at least thirty days before the beginning of the election period established under division (D) of this section in at least two appropriate periodicals designated by the director, and shall make the form available for reproduction to any interested group or association. The director shall provide a toll-free telephone number that producers may call to request a ballot.

(F) For the purposes of a referendum held on an egg marketing program or a proposed amendment to such a program under this section, an eligible producer is a person who is in the business of producing and marketing, or causing to be produced and marketed, eggs from a flock of more than seventy-five thousand domesticated chickens and, if the referendum is held on a proposed amendment to an egg marketing program, is subject to an assessment under the program.

Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. 25, HB 59, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2013.

Effective Date: 06-20-1994