Watkinsville To Hold Special Election In March On Liquor By The Drink

The Watkinsville City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to put a referendum allowing the sale of liquor by the drink in the city’s restaurants on the ballot in a special election on March 17.

The Council took the action after Mayor Charles Ivie informed the five council members and the public that he had concluded that the city could not determine precisely how city voters had cast their ballots in the county-wide referendum on Nov. 4.

City voters make up part of two of the county’s 13 precincts–City Hall and Annex–and those precincts voted 61.5 percent and 64.9 percent respectively in favor of the county referendum. The overall vote in the county was 65.4 percent approval of the referendum.

That referendum stated that voters were authorizing “the governing authority of Oconee County” to issue licenses for the sale of liquor by the drink.

State law allows cities to pass their own ordinance if “a majority of the electors voting in the county-wide referendum election who reside in the municipality” vote in favor of the county referendum.

Pat Hayes, chair of the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration, has said that she cannot separate out the ballots of Watkinsville voters from those of other voters in the two precincts because the question was not on the city ballot.

For more on the story, go to Oconee County Observations.

Pictured: Mayor Charles Ivie.