File photoClarke County residents passed a referendum on Nov. 7 to allow alcohol sales in the county but they'll need to wait a law is written and vendors apply for licenses before they'll be able to purchase beer, wine and alcohol.

Citizens in Clarke County on Nov. 7 will have the opportunity to vote on two separate issues involving countywide alcohol sales.

The board of supervisors on Sept. 8 OK’d two separate items for the November ballot — one for the sale of beer and wine and another for the sale of liquor.

Two petitions for each item received the required number of signatures for board consideration by the Sept. 8 deadline, Circuit Clerk Beth D. Jordan said.

The petition for liquor sales required 1,500 signatures and received 1,696. The beer and wine petition required 2,553 signatures — or 20 percent of registered voters — and received 2,600.

“We made it — easily,” Jordan said. “So now the next thing is getting people out to vote.”

Jordan in a previous report said she doesn’t expect this election to be as much of a moral issue as it has been in the past.

“I haven’t heard much opposition at all,” Jordan said. “Normally by this time the preachers or the churches have gotten involved in it.

“People realize that liquor is here, and people are driving to other counties to buy it… I just feel like a lot of it is being brought back into the county, so why not go ahead and sell it here.”

Quitman Mayor Eddie Fulton, who is in favor of selling alcohol in the county, said this is not a moral decision.

“It’s going to be sold no matter where you live — either illegally in your community or people are going to buy it outside your community.

“It deprives your local mom-and-pop businesses of the opportunity to sell products that people want.”

Jordan said the last day to register to vote is Oct. 7 at the Clarke County Courthouse, located at 101 Archusa Ave. in Quitman.