Missouri Sports Betting Amendment Margin Nears Range for a Recount

A late report added almost 10,000 votes to Christian County’s election results, reducing the margin for the Missouri sports betting amendment. The margin is also almost in the range for a possible recount.

Christian County’s official results were certified last week, and the total number of votes cast for Amendment 2 rose by 9,653. Out of the additional ballots, 3,995 were cast against sports betting. Incorporating that single change into the statewide tally kept by the Secretary of State’s office would reduce the statewide margin from 4,363 votes on Election Day to just 368 votes as of Monday, out of nearly 3 million votes cast.

However, additional adjustments will be implemented once each of the state’s 116 election jurisdictions certifies its results, a task that must be finished by Tuesday. In a pay per head review and news report, official results were found in 25 of the 50 counties with the highest votes for Amendment 2.

Results of the Missouri Sports Betting Amendment

Finally, the tallied votes in most of those jurisdictions were a few dozen or, at most, a few hundred more than first stated. Adding those votes brought the total number of votes in favor of Amendment 2 to 720. It falls comfortably within the margin of error for a recount, should one be requested, at 0.5%. No automatic recount would take place.

Despite accounting for half of the state’s vote, none of the eight most significant voting jurisdictions have issued certified final results. A solid majority of voters in the eight states approved Amendment 2. The deadline for the state to certify the results is December 10th. According to white label bookie software experts, that certification would be the endpoint for any recount.

Campaign spokesperson Jack Cardetti expressed confidence that the margin will remain intact on behalf of Winning for Missouri Education, which supported Amendment 2. Among the counties that have certified the results from November 5th, you may find numerous where the amendment was rejected by the majority but supported by the reported extra votes.

Close Monitoring of Final Certifications

According to Eryn Flood, the deputy clerk and director of elections for Christian County, the discrepancy between the number of ballots recorded for Amendment 2 on election night and the official results (50,275) is due to the large number of early votes collected and the limits of the ballot counting technology.

According to Flood, county clerks must receive and tally valid provisional ballots and ballots cast by foreign military voters by the Friday after an election. Missourians were granted two weeks of “no excuse absentee voting” before Election Day, a first for a presidential election. Using the provision, hundreds of thousands of people cast ballots.

According to a political news forum, Boone County had the highest number of extra votes for Amendment 2 among the counties that have certified their results. Two hundred forty-three of those additional votes were for “yes,” and 115 were against.

With a remaining difference of 700 votes, the statewide result would be 0.03% in favor, far within the 0.5% margin that would need a recount. On Monday, Secretary of State Jay Aschcroft’s spokeswoman JoDonn Chaney stated that the campaign opposing the amendment must have someone requesting the recount.