Dive Brief:

• Oregon has begun a hand recount of votes from last month's election in which voters rejected a requirement to label foods that contain genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. 
• The difference in the Nov. 4 election was a mere 812 votes - a margin so thin as to require a statewide recount. Both sides are allowed to have monitors in place during that recount.
• As that recount began Tuesday, supporters of the proposed law claimed that opponents had hired observers of the recount from out of state. That's a violation of Oregon law.

Dive Insight:

If the GMO opponents are correct - and Oregon officials seem to suggest they are - then the political consultants hired by the food industry to block the label law are in violation of state law. 

But given the stakes involved, and the extraordinarily close nature of the vote, it was unlikely that the recount was ever going to be a model for good citizenship, fair play, respect for differing opinions, and adherence to the letter of the law.