2 counties OK alcohol sales; 1 county’s vote is still out

Voters in Madison and Sharp counties approved alcohol sales Tuesday, unofficial election results show.

In Benton County, votes were still being counted late Wednesday afternoon, but the vote for allowing liquor sales was in the lead by a considerable margin.

If all three counties approve package-store sales, it will be significant, said Michael Langley, director of the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage ControlDivision.

“For the first time since the 1940s, Arkansas has a majority of wet counties,” he said, assuming that liquor sales pass in Benton County. “This continues the pro-liquor trend that has been steady since 2006. Every pro-liquor issue on a ballot, including wet/dry and off-premise Sunday sales, has passed. The vote differential also appears to be growing each year. It is a strong cultural shift.”

Before Tuesday’s vote, 35 of Arkansas’ 75 counties allowed liquor sales.

With 20 of 20 precincts in Madison County reporting, the unofficial results were: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,793 Against. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2,828

With 26 of 26 precincts reporting in Sharp County, the unofficial results were: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3,886 Against. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3,456

As of late Wednesday afternoon, with only electronic votes counted, the unofficial results in Benton County were: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47,712 Against. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24,946

The Benton County numbers above include ballots cast via voting machines, but not paper ballots, said Kim Dennison, Benton County election coordinator. That means none of the county’s 57 precincts were reporting full numbers Wednesday afternoon.

But the total number of votes listed above on the liquor issue in Benton County represents 63 percent of the county’s 116,099 registered voters, according to the Arkansas secretary of state’s website, sos. arkansas.gov . So passage of the liquor issue appears likely.

Benton County experiencedproblems Wednesday because, to shorten lines for electronic voting machines, election workers allowed voters to cast paper ballots instead. As a result, several polling places ran out of paper ballots, said Dennison. Then the county’s three machines that count paper ballots all malfunctioned.

She said workers were counting paper ballots by hand Wednesday afternoon and a repairman arrived to fix the counting machines. If the machines are not working by this morning, Dennison saidshe’ll take the paper ballots to Fayetteville and use Washington County’s machines to count them.

Dennison said initially 11,000 paper ballots were sent to polling places in Benton County, then an undetermined number of additional ballots were printed and distributed Tuesday.

“It could be another night into the wee hours for us,” she said Wednesday afternoon.

BENTON COUNTY SALES

The ballot initiative in each county was for or against the “manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors,” according to Arkansas Code Annotated 3-8-206(a)(1). Besides packageliquor stores, the vote in each county will allow restaurants and bars to serve beer and wine without having to get private club permits. The vote also will allow some grocery and convenience stores to sell beer and small-farm wines.Permits must be obtained through the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Division to sell beer, wine or liquor.

The liquor-sales effort in Benton County was spearheaded by Steuart and Tom Walton, two grandsons of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. They were behind Keep Dollars in Benton County, a committee that raised $663,450 and spent $660,688 on the effort and got more than 56,000 signatures from registered voters to put the measure on Tuesday’s ballot. The brothers each gave $299,500 to Keep Dollars in Benton County, according to its Oct. 31 filing with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Steuart Walton said he and his brother were pleased with the election results and believe that the vote will result in “economic opportunity for Benton County and our individual cities.”

With 133 private clubs, Benton County has been known as Arkansas’ “wettest dry county.” If it passes, the measure will allow up to 55 liquor stores in the county. That’s one for every 4,000 residents.

Tena O’Brien, the Benton County clerk, said the county has prohibited liquor sales since at least 1947, when a special election was held on the issue.

The vote won’t allow for sale of mixed drinks at restaurants and bars that aren’t private clubs, but that could be accomplished in a referendum vote held at least six months later, according to Arkansas Code Annotated 3-9-208(a). Private clubs became legal in dry counties beginning in 1969 under Arkansas Code Annotated 3-9-222.

A group called Keep the Money in Madison County held a similar petition drive, gathering 3,430 valid signatures to get the issue on the ballot there. Madison County borders Benton County to the southeast. Bob Barton of Kingston spearheaded that effort.

“Keep the Money in Madison County would like to congratulate the people of Madison County for changing this law,” said Barton. “We’re pleased obviously that the people spoke. It wasn’t a close race, and we’re glad they saw our point of view.”

Keep the Money in Madison County raised $10,177 and spent $9,915 for its alcohol-sales effort, according to its Oct. 29filing with the Ethics Commission.

The effort was opposed by an organization called Citizens to Keep Madison County Safe.

The vote means Madison County will be allowed permits for three package-liquor stores on the basis of the county’s population of 15,717.

In Sharp County in northeast Arkansas, voters approved alcohol sales for the first time since 1945.

Supporters of the measure attempted to place the issue on the county-wide ballot twice before, but failed. In 2008, a Sharp County circuit judge ruled that supporters didn’t collect the required number of signatures necessary to call an election. Two years later, the group collected enough signatures but turned them in a week past the deadline.

“It was closer than I thought it would be,” Jerry Adams, who campaigned for alcohol sales, said of the election’s results. “But I was happy with the results.”

Adams said Sharp County will benefit from taxes that will stay in the county.

“A majority of Sharp County goes to Missouri [to buy alcohol],” Adams said. “All that money was sucked out of state. It was ridiculous.”

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission will allow the county four liquor stores on the basis of its population.

SUNDAY SALES

Sunday liquor sales were on the ballot in four Northwest Arkansas cities. Unofficial results showed that Sunday liquor sales appears to have passed in Springdale, Tontitown and Ozark. It was apparently defeated in Lead Hill, a small town in Boone County.

With 26 of 26 precincts reporting, the vote in Springdale was: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,892 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,307

In Tontitown, with 5 of 5 precincts reporting, the vote for on-premise Sunday liquor sales was: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .760 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399

In Tontitown, with 5 of 5 precincts reporting, the vote for off-premise Sunday liquor sales was: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479

With 4 of 4 precincts reporting, the vote for Sunday liquor sales in Ozark was: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

And in Lead Hill, with 1 of 1 precinct reporting, the vote for Sunday sales was: Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Jim Phillips, president of the Springdale Liquor Association, said passage of Sunday sales inSpringdale is important with Benton and Madison counties both voting to go wet.

“I think it will be good for Springdale,” Phillips said. “It will give Springdale more sales tax dollars. Even businesses that don’t sell alcohol will benefit from it because people will potentially shop for other things when they travel to Springdale to buy alcohol on Sunday.”

The Springdale Liquor Association owns seven area package stores, including County Line Liquors in Springdale, just south of the Benton County border.

BARLING VOTE STYMIED

The wet/dry issue was also on the ballot in Barling in Sebastian County, near Fort Smith.

With 4 of 4 precincts reporting, the vote to allow liquor sales was: For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,082 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .544

But whether the vote will count has been a matter of debate.

That’s because the petition drive to get the issue on the ballot should have been conducted throughout Sebastian County, with the exception of Fort Smith, said Langley of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division.

Instead, Barling City Director Bruce Farrar, who led the petition drive, said he believed that he needed signatures from 38 percent of Barling’s 2,516 registered voters. Sebastian County Clerk Sharon Brooks said her office certified 965 signatures on Farrar’s petition, nine signatures more than the 956 that he thought he needed.

Sebastian County is one of a few Arkansas counties that has two county seats: one in Fort Smith and one in Greenwood.

Langley said Farrar needed signatures from 38 percent of the voters in the Greenwood district, which encompasses all of Sebastian County except for Fort Smith. That’s because the Greenwood district voted to go dry in the 1940s. A 1947 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling dictates that the entire Greenwood district - not just Barling - would have to vote on allowing liquor sales.

That Supreme Court decision means that Farrar actually needed signatures from 38 percent of 24,015 registered voters in the Greenwood district, a much larger number, officials said.

The county election commission placed the item on the ballot after it was certified by the county clerk.

“Once the county clerk certifies a measure, we have to put it on the ballot,” said Jerry Huff, election coordinator.

The matter is likely to end up in court, said Farrar, Langley and Dan Shue, Sebastian County prosecutor.

Farrar noted that liquor sales passed in Barling “by a pretty wide margin.”

“Now, somebody’s got to file for a liquor license,” he said. “Then we’ll see what happens.”

Farrar said he doesn’t plan to apply for a liquor-store license.

Langley said he’ll deny any applications from Barling, on the basis of previous court decisions.

The issue stretches back to 1942 when Sebastian County voters approved Initiated Act 1 of 1942, which stated that the upper district, consisting of Fort Smith, would be wet and that the lower district, or all of the county outside Fort Smith, would be dry, according to documents Shue provided.

On the basis of that act, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in 210 Ark. 1039 in January 1947 that once a county or district voted to prohibit liquor sales, no other part of it could vote separately to allow them.

The case arose from Crawford County, which voted to go dry in 1944. Then, voters in Van Buren’s Ward 1 submitted a petition for an election to make the ward wet, Shue said.

The county judge decided to allow the election, but a resident appealed the county judge’s decision. The state Supreme Court ruled in the resident’s favor, stating that since the entire county voted to go dry, Ward 1 could not hold an election to determine whether liquor could be sold in that ward, the documents show.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/08/2012

Upcoming Events