After several years of coming up short of signatures on petitions to allow Lamar County residents to vote whether to allow alcohol sales in the county, the measure has finally made its way to the ballot to be featured in the November 8 general election.
The item will appear on the ballot as “State of Mississippi beer, wine and light spirits referendum,” and will decide whether to make legal sale, storage and distribution of those items in the county. Lamar County is currently considered a “dry” county, meaning alcohol sales are not permitted outside of the parts of the Hattiesburg city limits within the county.
“Along with the help of (volunteer groups), we were able to get enough signatures to get it put on the ballot, and Lamar County supervisors did go ahead and agree to put it on the ballot for us,” said Lumberton Mayor Quincy Rogers, who has been spearheading the effort to allow the sales. “It’s a long time coming, and … this is probably the last opportunity we’ll have to get this.
“This is the best time to do it now, when everybody’s coming to the polls in November. Holding a (separate) special election to have it done, we didn’t think that would be very good, so we just decided to wait until the November election, when everyone else in Lamar County is out voting.”
As far back as March 2019, officials had gathered approximately 1,200 to 1,400 signatures on a petition in support of putting the item on a ballot. Copies of the petition were placed at Ramey’s Marketplace in Purvis, Lumberton and Sumrall, as well as online at www.votelamarcounty.com.
Given the number of registered voters in Lamar County, Rogers figured the petition needed approximately 5,500 signatures to reach the required number of 20 percent of voters. The measure was unable to garner enough support to make it on the ballot, until the latest effort was successful.
Other measures on the general election ballot include such races as a new local representative of Congress, several local judges and numerous other races.
“We do know that this will be highly-contested Congressional and Senate races, so we knew this was the best time to get it on the ballot,” Rogers said.
Rogers has previously said although allowing alcohol sales in the county would not be the answer for everything, but it would certainly help smaller municipalities such as Lumberton, Purvis and Sumrall.
“Especially in smaller municipalities, it’s turned great dividends for some (other) areas that were basically hit economically hard,” he said. “For restaurants, and even our local stores, you would benefit from it, from the revenue.
“Plus, I know our city and other municipalities (in the county) would benefit from it.”
Of the 82 counties in Mississippi, 32 are dry, leaving 50 counties with a wet designation. There are also several wet cities in dry counties, including Hattiesburg (Lamar County), Ellisville and Laurel (Jones County) and Waynesboro (Wayne County).
“We do know that everyone will not support this, but those who can and will, we’re please asking them to come out in November,” Rogers said. “Let’s make this thing happen for Lamar County.”
