Pineville Liquor Elections

I was busy cooking yesterday and didn't even look at the computer till long after dark, but we had an important election on Saturday, the much anticipated wet/dry election for the City of Pineville, LA.

I live in and serve the people of Rapides Parish, LA.  Central to the state, Rapides parish is dominated by two cities, Alexandria and Pineville.  Alexandria is the larger of the two, and they are separated by  the Red river.  As long as I can recall, Alexandria has been wide-open wet and Pineville has been bone dry.  It worked for many people, most especially the temperance movements of the local churches.  I'm Southern Baptist, and I understand the dynamics of church membership.

Alexandria was wet, and Pineville was dry, and that's the way it's been in my lifetime.  If you lived on the Pineville side of the river, and wanted a drink, you crossed over into Alexandria. Several times in my memory, there were movements to bring the north side of the river out of Prohibition, but they all failed, either because it was political suicide to even bring up such a thing,

But, demographics change, and people move around, and recently some of the merchants thought that maybe it was time to bring Pineville to the wet side, so some of those merchants started a petition drive and succeeded in getting enough signatures that the law forced a local option election.  We voted on that Saturday.  There were five (5) options on the ballot, as required by law.  The options were worded kind of strangely, but we all figured out what they meant, and the voting was fairly overwhelming.  On Friday, Pineville was dry.  On Sunday, Pineville became wet.  Very wet.  The results are graphed below.

It would appear that The People want liquor in Pineville.  They voted for both low alcohol, high alcohol, package sales, liquor by the drink, and restaurant sales.  This election applies only to the city of Pineville, and the rural areas in the north side of the parish remain dry, but I won't have to drive nearly as far to buy a bottle of hooch.    It will be interesting as well, to see how the tax revenue moves around.  I suspect that I won't be the only person who no longer crosses the river to buy beer, wine, or whiskey. 

The People have spoken.  Let freedom ring.