Smithville Voters Approve Alcohol Sales Citywide, Including Newly Annexed Areas

Smithville voters approved the legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed drinks, across the city on Tuesday, according to unofficial results from Bastrop County.

The Bastrop County election results site showed 1,223 votes for the city's special election measure and 318 against, with all three of the city's precincts reporting. Its last update was posted at 9:58 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. By our math, that is 79.36 percent in favor and a margin of 905 votes out of 1,541 cast. The results are unofficial until they are canvassed.

What voters decided

The city's notice of special election said the vote was on a local option legalization proposition under Section 501.035 of the Texas Election Code, with this wording: "The legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed beverages."

The Smithville Times explained why the question was on the ballot. Alcohol is already sold legally across much of Bastrop County, and Smithville already has bars and restaurants that serve liquor. But voters in different parts of the county approved different kinds of sales over the years, so the rules were not the same everywhere.

Smithville voters approved mixed-beverage sales in 2014, the paper reported, but land the city annexed after that vote was not automatically covered. As a result, a restaurant on one side of a street might be able to serve margaritas while one across the street, in a newly annexed area, could not. The November election was meant to end those differences.

Smithville City Hall at 317 Main St., photographed in May 2017. Photo: Djmaschek / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The rest of the county

The paper reported that voters in the county's four justice of the peace precincts and the cities of Bastrop and Elgin also voted separately on the same question for their own areas.

The county results show all of those measures passing with all precincts reporting:

• City of Bastrop: 3,361 for, 815 against.

• City of Elgin: 1,953 for, 557 against.

• Justice of the Peace Precinct 1: 8,591 for, 2,176 against.

• Justice of the Peace Precinct 2: 8,126 for, 1,975 against.

• Justice of the Peace Precinct 3: 4,644 for, 1,626 against.

• Justice of the Peace Precinct 4: 6,056 for, 1,767 against.

By our math, the lowest share in favor was 74.07 percent, in Precinct 3, and the highest was 80.48 percent, in the City of Bastrop.

What comes next

The agenda for the Smithville City Council's Nov. 9 meeting, set for 6 p.m. at City Hall, 317 Main St., includes a resolution canvassing the election. Canvassing is the step that makes the results official.

For restaurant owners in newly annexed parts of town, the change could mean they can serve the same drinks as the businesses down the street. For the rest of Smithville, little may change day to day, since the paper noted that the city already has bars and restaurants serving liquor.

Our view

Christians have long disagreed in good faith about alcohol. Scripture warns plainly against drunkenness, and many families choose to keep it out of their homes altogether. Those convictions deserve respect.

But this vote was mostly about fairness. It makes no sense for one business to follow a different rule than its neighbor across the street just because of when a line was drawn on a city map. Smithville voters chose one rule for the whole town. Now it falls to business owners to serve responsibly, and to all of us to look out for our neighbors.

Hero photo: Downtown Smithville, photographed in July 2012. Photo: Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.