§ 1280.652 - Eligibility.

(a) Eligible producers, feeders, and importers. Each person who was a sheep producer, sheep feeder, or importer of sheep and sheep products during the representative period is entitled to register and vote in the referendum. Each producer, feeder, and importer entity shall be entitled to cast only one ballot in the referendum. Importers who only import raw wool are not eligible to register and vote in the referendum.

(b) Proxy registration and voting. Proxy registration and voting is not authorized, except that an officer or employee of a corporate producer, feeder, or importer, or any guardian, administrator, executor, or trustee of a producer's, feeder's, or importer's estate, or an authorized representative of any eligible producer, feeder, or importer entity (other than an individual producer, feeder, or importer), such as a corporation or partnership, may register and cast a ballot on behalf of that entity. Any individual who registers to vote in the referendum on behalf of any producer, feeder, or importer entity shall certify that he or she is authorized by such entity to take such action.

(c) Joint and group interest. A group of individuals, such as members of a family, joint tenants, tenants in common, a partnership, owners of community property, or a corporation engaged in sheep production, sheep feeding, or the importation of sheep and sheep products as a producer, feeder, or importer entity, shall be entitled to only one vote, provided, however, that any member of a group may register to vote as a producer, feeder, or importer if he or she is an eligible producer, feeder, or importer separate from the group.