Columbia County votes wet after 71 years

We're proud of client Vote for Growth in Columbia County, whose local option campaign resulted in a 56%-44% win on November 4. As in 2010, the wet day foreshadowed the wet vote. Columbia County joins Saline County as newly-wet counties, bringing the total number of wet counties in Arkansas to 40. 35 counties remain dry.

The Arkansas Times has a report on the alcohol elections that took place in Arkansas earlier this week, including the failure of the statewide ballot initiative to make the entire state wet. The measure failed in all but 6 counties.

I've helped several counties with varying aspects of the local option process over the last five years, including Boone, Clark, Columbia, and Sharp Counties. Benton and Madison Counties voted wet in 2012 with Walmart support.

A local option election requires collecting signatures from 38% of registered voters in the county for submission to the county clerk. I've previously written an overview of the process, and we have several blog posts on local options/Vote for Growth and general election law for additional reading.