The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has extended the voting deadline for the Pierce’s Disease-Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (PD/GWSS) referendum to June 10.

The extension is designed to help ensure the minimum eligible grower voting rate of 40 percent required by law is reached. 

CDFA will send duplicate ballots to those growers whose votes had not been returned as of May 11. They are asked to vote and return the new ballots by the new deadline.

Depending on how wineries report grower information, the state agency says some ballots may have been sent to management companies on behalf of grape growers. CDFA urges growers who use management companies to check with them to see if any ballots have been received.

On April 10, CDFA sent out more than 7,000 ballots to every grower who paid the PD/GWSS assessment on grapes crushed in 2014.

Growers who represent more than one entity will receive a ballot for each entity. These ballots are not duplicates and should be marked and returned to CDFA.

Growers who did not receive a ballot, and believe they should have, can call CDFA’s Marketing Branch at (916) 900-5018.