Early voting to begin in bid to reverse 1950s alcohol ban

Having the ability to sell alcohol by the drink helps to attract national chain restaurants to a city, while missing that option turns them away, Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher said.

“When they find out you’re dry, it’s like a wall goes up,” Fletcher said last week. “It’s an obstacle.”

Increasing such economic development opportunities is why officials are asking certain voters in Jacksonville and Sherwood to consider reversing a 60-year-old alcohol ban within the former Gray Township.

Early voting begins Tuesday for the special election on Nov. 14. Early voting will be 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and again Nov. 13 in the Pulaski County Regional Building at 501 W. Markham St. in Little Rock.

Early voters can also cast ballots from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday in the Jacksonville Community Center at 5 Municipal Drive in Jacksonville and in the Jack Evans Senior Citizen Center at 2301 Thornhill Drive in Sherwood.

There won’t be early voting available at any location on Friday, part of the Veterans Day holiday weekend.

Each city’s vote will be independent of the other, meaning one could pass and the other could fail, or both could pass or fail.

Only voters in the old Gray Township precinct can overturn the alcohol ban. The area includes an estimated 23,920 eligible voters throughout most of Jacksonville, north of Maryland Avenue in neighboring Sherwood and a small portion of unincorporated Pulaski County. South of Maryland Avenue in Sherwood is wet.

A vote from the 1950s in the old Gray Township approved the ban on alcohol that remains in effect today, even with voting districts across Pulaski County having been abolished in the 1980s. The special election would allow on-premises, by-thedrink alcohol sales at restaurants. The prohibition would remain on liquor stores, bars and clubs within the township’s limits and wouldn’t allow grocery stores and gas stations to sell wine or beer.

The current prohibition on by-the-drink sales “restricts and really limits our ability when it comes to eco-

nomic development, especially in attracting national chain restaurants,” Fletcher said. Fletcher said he believes that Jacksonville, as home to Little Rock Air Force Base, a large economic driver, “ought to have every restaurant and retailer you can think of.”

“All this does is it levels the playing field so we can be as competitive as our sister cities down the road,” Fletcher said. “Even with a small Mom and Pop restaurant, it hurts their ability to operate. If someone wanted to open even a small Italian restaurant, they’d want to have the ability to sell wine, for instance.”

“That’s pretty much the way it is here,” said Marcia Cook, executive director for the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce. “We’re the same way.”

Proponents in both cities are working together, with a committee having weekly campaign meetings, Cook said, to better educate voters about the need for lifting the ban. The group had done three mail-outs by early last week, has signs in the windows of several businesses and started a phone campaign to ask voters to approve lifting the ban.

No organized opposition had appeared by last week.

“I feel like it’s going to pass, but I don’t want to be overly confident,” Cook said. “We’ve not heard of any opposition to it. I’m hoping those people who are opposed just won’t get out and vote.”

Fletcher said having the two cities working together has been beneficial, although vote results could be different.

“People in both cities get to make up their own mind for their city,” Fletcher said. “It helps to get the message out in a uniform way to inform the voters and work off each other’s momentum.”

Cities’ abilities to turn their dry sections wet became more feasible with Act 144, co-sponsored by state Rep. Bob Johnson, D-Jacksonville, during the most recent legislative session. The act allows city councils to call special elections to change their alcohol laws.

Before that, state law required petitioners to gather signatures from 15 percent of the electorate in order to hold an election related to alcohol consumption. Such efforts failed in 2013 and 2015.