Packaged distilled spirits will soon be sold by licensed businesses inside the Ellijay city limits following passage of a special election item last Tuesday.
The lone ballot item, asking if the issuance of licenses for package sales of distilled spirits should be approved, drew 60 votes for yes and 11 for no.
Those numbers include early voting and absentee ballots, noted Sandra Sales, Ellijay Elections Superintendent. Sales said there are 1,190 registered city voters.
There were others who came to vote on the item at the Gilmer Civic Center polling place Nov. 2, but were unable because they don’t live within the city limits, Sales noted.
“We had quite a few that came from Coosawattee (who thought) it’s within the city,” she said.
Packaged liquor is the latest alcohol-related item to be passed by Ellijay voters.
Licensed sales of liquor by the drink passed in 2011. In 2012, voters in both Ellijay and East Ellijay voted in sales of packaged and by-the-drink alcohol on Sunday.
The packaged liquor sales item appeared on the Ellijay special election ballot after state legislation, in the form of Georgia Senate Bill 145, was passed into law in May.
The legislation supersedes a previous requirement that 35 percent of registered voters had to first sign a petition to get package sales on a ballot.
Instead, a city council can now vote on whether to initiate a voter referendum on the question, which the Ellijay City Council did in July.
A fee for retail sales of distilled spirits in Ellijay has not been set, nor has a city ordinance for the item been created.
After it is drafted, that ordinance will have to go before the city council for approval before licenses can be issued.