WINSTON COUNTY - Plans are underway to have a wet/dry referendum for voters to decide the sale of alcoholic beverages across Winston County, possibly as early as the primary election in May, 2022.
Houston resident Dusty Pritchett approached Winston County Commission Chairman Roger Hayes and Commissioners Bobby Everett and David Cummings at the commission’s Monday, Sept. 13, meeting, telling about the process underway of having a referendum placed on the ballot of an election already on the calendar.
Pritchett informed the commission he was seeking to have a referendum on the ballot for either the primary in May or the general election in November.
By having the referendum on either a primary or general election ballot, it will save the county costs associated with having a special election,
county officials explained. If the cost of having an election exceeds $40,000, the county pays from its general fund. If state offices are on the ballot, the state pays for half of the election costs, noted Commission Administrative Clerk Judy Burnett.
The idea was to have the referendum on the ballot of an election already set in order to save the county from paying these costs, Pritchett reasoned.
The first step is for Pritchett to have his petition approved, making sure it is technically correct before it is circulated throughout the county for the required number of signatures. This must be done before a referendum can even be placed on the ballot.
“We’re hopefully kicking it off today,” Pritchett announced to the commission.
The petition must contain the signatures of at least 25 percent of qualified voters from the last general election.
“Some of them will be disqualified because they have died or moved or signed it twice,” said Pritchett, “so my goal is 3,000 signatures from Winston County registered voters.”
The petition must be turned in to Winston County Probate Judge Sheila Moore at least 82 days prior to the election, which, in the case of the May primary, would be Feb. 15.
“I think it is kind of archaic to not be able to possess alcohol on the lake. I am not advocating drinking and driving,” Pritchett explained. “If you are taking a bottle of wine to a friend’s house for dinner in your boat, which happened to me, I got a $577 ticket for having a single, unopened bottle of wine on my boat.”
That event, he further explained, spearheaded his efforts to seek a wet/dry referendum, which would call for the sale or distribution of alcohol beverages across the county.
“It appears that ALEA is really stepping up the enforcement of (laws) regarding alcohol on the lake,” said Pritchett. He was referring to marine police troopers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Pritchett believes county alcohol sales will boost the economy, as well as taxes.
“It will make Smith Lake a more tourist-friendly area for people to want to settle here,” he noted. “I think it is important to move the county forward.”
Pritchett noted he had been before the commission about a month ago, stressing the importance of having a wet/dry referendum on the ballot, but has since developed more of a plan after meeting with county officials and discussing the rules he must follow.
“In fairness, we want to time it with a normal election so we won’t require Sheila (Moore, judge of probate) to have a special election,” Pritchett noted.
“It will be the county having a special election, and you don’t want to do that,” Moore, who was also in attendance, said.
Pritchett then posed a question to the commission regarding the county receiving a payment through the Tennessee Valley Authority in lieu of property taxes which are distributed to dry counties in the state.
“How much does the county get from this payment and how much was it impacted when Double Springs and Haleyville went wet? How much would it impact the county if the whole county went wet?” Pritchett asked. “I think we ought to be wet, but if it’s going to screw the county out of a bunch of money, I don’t want to do that.”
Burnett responded the commission receives $14,000 a month, with a percentage of that amount going to the municipalities of Addison and Arley which are served under TVA.
“Double Springs, Lynn and Haleyville are not TVA,” Burnett added.
Hayes asked if dry counties receive a portion of state monies off liquor sales.
Cummings explained that wet counties receive a percentage of the profit generated by state ABC beverage stores, but dry counties do not.
“If we were wet, we would get a portion of the ABC sales profit throughout the state,” Cummings said.
Pritchett asked if the profit Winston County receives off the TVA property would be affected if the county went wet. Burnett responded that it would not have an effect.
“At one time, the legislature threatened to cut dry counties off as more cities and more counties went wet,” Hayes pointed out.
“The bottom line is, is it going to hurt us or help us?” asked Everett.
Moore explained that the petition must contain the names of 25 percent of the voters who voted in the county’s last general election, which was in November, 2020. It was determined that 11,313 registered, qualified county voters cast their ballots in the November, 2020 general election, which meant the names of 25 percent or 2,829 signatures of qualified, registered voters must be obtained on the petition, Moore further explained.
“They are shooting to get at least 3,000 (signatures),” Moore said.
The petition containing these signatures must be turned in no less than 82 days, and no more than 97 days before the next election where the referendum is being sought. This is in accordance with Alabama Code 28-2-1.
This means the petition should be turned in around Feb. 15, in order for the signatures to be verified and plans made for the commission to approve a resolution calling for the referendum on the May 24, primary election ballot, Moore stated.
If the referendum is sought for the general election on Nov. 8, the petition must be turned in around the first of August, Moore continued.
Once the petition is turned in to Moore, the next step will be verifying those signatures, she added.
“I will have to type in every person’s name, verify their date of birth and address to verify that they are a qualified, registered voter of Winston County,” Moore said.
This process is done to make sure there are no duplicate signatures and making sure the person signing the petition is a qualified, registered voter that has not been disqualified for any reason from voting.
Moore stressed that those signing the petition must not sign a nickname because that will not be recognized by the system.
“They need to sign the petition based on how they are registered to vote,” Moore pointed out. “They need to put their legal name.”
The petition calls for the voter to print his or her name, address and date of birth as well as their signature.
“You have to print the name because a lot of times you can’t read the signature,” Moore stated.
The petition must be clear in stating the purpose why voters are signing, Moore indicated.
Moore has verified the format of the petition to be correct in stating, “do you favor the sale or legal distribution of alcoholic beverages in the county, yes or no.”
Once the names on the petition calling for a county wet/dry referendum have been verfied by the probate judge, she will have a letter presented to the commission stating the petition meets the requirements for the commission to authorize a resolution calling for the election, according to Moore.
Once the resolution calling for the referendum is approved by the commission, the probate judge must give a notice in the local newspaper published for three weeks advertising the election, Moore added.
For incorporated municipalities with populations of less than 1,000, a vote for the county to go wet would mean those municipalities would go wet also, according to the Alabama League of Municipalities.
According to the general provisions for a wet/dry referendum as noted in Section 28-2-1, there is not a provision for a municipality to reverse its wet/dry classification by having a special election, officials confirmed.
According to article 2 of the special method referendum, there would not be a provision to reverse the election with any dry municipality because populations of those dry Winston County municipalities do not exceed the required 1,000 plus populations, officials added.
Incorporated municipalities in Winston County, that are currently dry, or not allowed to sale or distribute alcohol, include Lynn, Natural Bridge, Arley and Addison.
Haleyville, Double Springs will not be allowed to vote
Those who live within the city limits of municipalities within Winston County that are already wet, or selling or distributing alcoholic beverages, will not be allowed to vote in a countywide wet/dry election, according to wording in Code of Alabama Section 28-2A-1.
The code, in discussing rules for wet/dry referendums for municipalities, stated that if a majority of qualified voters voted yes, the municipality would be wet and alcoholic beverages could legally be sold, distributed and consumed within the corporate limits of that municipality.
“All other laws to the contrary notwithstanding, the electors residing within the corporate limits of any such municipality that has become wet pursuant to a municipal option election held under this title, shall not be entitled to vote in any subsequent county election or special method referendum held to determine if the county in which the municipality is located shall become wet,” according ing to wording in Section 28-2A-1.
Haleyville Mayor Ken Sunseri responded, “I don’t have a problem with it on the fact that we are already wet. However, if the county would decide to do any taxing on the alcohol within the county, I feel like our residents should have a right to vote also.”
The city of Haleyville receives $108,000 to $141,000 in revenue each year from taxes on the sales of alcohol, according to Sunseri.
“We’ve used that money to buy police vehicles and different things that pertain to the city,” Sunseri said.
He added, “It does affect us if the county has a tax on it. We should have an opportunity to vote on that if we’re going to have a tax liability on it.”
Moore stressed that those inside the city limits of Haleyville and Double Springs will not have the wet/dry referendum on their primary or general election ballots.
Those inside the city limits of Haleyville who reside in Marion County will also not be allowed to vote on the countywide wet/dry referendum because they must adhere to rules for Marion County, officials added.
Double Springs Mayor Elmo Robinson noted taxes collected on alcohol sales have provided a major boost to the town’s revenue.
“We’ve been able to do a lot of things that in the past we’ve not been able to,” Robinson said. “We’ve replaced a lot of the lighting out at the baseball fields. We’ve been able to contribute quite a bit to the school system out of it. We’ve given them money for bleachers and athletics.”
Concerning the possibility of a referendum calling for the county as a whole to be wet, Robinson responded, “I think the whole state ought to be wet. To me, it’s kind of dumb having part of it dry and part of it wet, all these regulations.”
Robinson admitted that the town may be negatively affected some in revenue if the county as a whole goes wet.
“I think it would do the whole county good. Maybe the county could tax liquor sales in other parts of the county and help them out some,” Robinson added.
Robinson explained it was only right that towns or municipalities where alcohol sales are already legal not be allowed to vote in the county wet/dry referendum.
Robinson feared that some inside the town limits of Double Springs would vote against the countywide sales.
“That wouldn’t be right,” he said. “That kind of holds a monopoly on the cities having it by themselves and the county not having the opportunity.”
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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