Election update: State, local laws now allow alcohol sales on Election Day
NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, 9:15 a.m. — Bardstown Police were dispatched Tuesday morning to a local minit mart after a customer reported seeing the clerk selling beer on Election Day.
An officer responded, and apparently discovered that thanks to recent changes in the law, no law was broken.
The long-standing prohibition on alcohol sales when the polls were open was eliminated by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2013. The new law went into effect on June 15, 2013.
Inside the Bardstown city limits, the city’s ABC ordinances address alcohol sales. After the state alcohol sales regulations were changed, the City of Bardstown modified its regulations on alcohol sales to mirror the changes in the state law, according to City Clerk Barbie Bryant.
The law is a carry-over from the past, when taverns or grocery stores were sometimes put in service as polling places.
Kentucky is one of six states to repeal its ban on Election Day alcohol sales since 2008. The others were West Virginia, Indiana, Utah, Idaho and Delaware.
South Carolina is the only state that retains a statewide ban on Election Day alcohol sales at restaurants, bars and retail outlets.
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