Douglas County voters go to the polls today, casting a ballot in a referendum to decide if alcoholic beverages can be sold by the drink in county restaurants.
Sunday sales by the drink are already permitted in the cities of Douglasville, Villa Rica and Austell.
Voters will cast ballots in all precincts from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Election results will be telecast tonight on dctv23, the county's cable access channel and webcast and posted on the Web site at www.celebratedouglascounty.com.
Less than 1 percent of the county's voters took advantage of early voting that ended Friday. The county has 69,026 active registered voters.
Most people do not realize that the City of Douglasville has spread so much over the last ten years. This can help to stop this spread.
If you want Douglas County to have a chance to stay a nice county: vote yes.
If you want Douglas County to be like Clayton County: vote no.
(If you look at what happened in Clayton, it was very similar. The county was unable to allow alcohol permits for restaurants so the cities spread and they did not regulate well. They allowed anything to be built anywhere, just like Douglasville has and will continue to do.)
Compete with counties like Cobb and Fulton for hotels, restaurants, and resorts that will not locate where they cannot sell on Sunday.
And the cities in this county, as well as other counties will continue to annex land without care to issue permits to package stores and restaurants.
I don't think more of these establishments will help Douglas County "compete" for anything we NEED or WANT in our county!!
Plus, I know we have already voted on this, and already more than once - when the voters speak, you are supposed to listen - not just keep asking the same question over and over until the circumstances are right (like a low turn out) to get the answer you want.
I think, to prevent this situation in the future, every vote should require a certain percentage of participation - so than less than 1% of the registered voters are not making decisions for the entire county...and if the participation isn't there, then the vote shouldn't count!