A proposal to allow a new casino to be licensed on the Osage River near the Lake of the Ozarks will be on the November ballot, a Cole County judge ruled Friday.

The initiative, which was initially found to be 2,031 signatures short in the 2nd Congressional District, actually did have enough valid signatures, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office conceded when a planned trial over the petition opened before Judge Daniel Green.

The proposed constitutional amendment initially failed to qualify for the ballot because of signatures disallowed by local election officials. An additional 2,230 valid signatures were found by the proponents, Osage River Gaming and Convention, by reviewing the rejections.

Signature verification is “a massive, messy process that does not always produce perfect results,” Chuck Hatfield, the attorney representing the campaign, told Green.

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