# Local option > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Local_option > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Local_option.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_option > Source revision: 1352522581 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Devolved legal authority}} {{Multiple issues| {{citations missing|date=November 2013}} {{Globalize|article|North America|date=September 2017}} }} A '''local option''' is the ability of local political jurisdictions, typically [counties](/source/U.S._county) or [municipalities](/source/municipalities), to allow decisions on certain [controversial](/source/controversy) issues within their borders, usually referring to a popular vote. == Prohibition of alcohol == {{See also|Dry county}} As described by an encyclopedia in 1907, local option is the "license granted to the inhabitants of a district to extinguish or reduce the sale of intoxicants in their midst." A 1911 Encyclopædia describes it as "specifically used in politics of the power given to the electorate of a particular district to choose whether licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor should be granted or not." This form of "local option" has also been termed "local veto."{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Option |volume=20 |page=141}} Local option regarding alcohol was first used in the [temperance movement](/source/temperance_movement) as a means to bring about [prohibition](/source/prohibition) gradually. In the 1830s, temperance activists mobilized to restrict licenses in towns and counties in New England. By the 1840s, temperance reformers demanded state laws to allow local voters to decide whether any liquor licenses would be issued in their localities. Some 12 states and territories had some form of the early local option laws by the late 1840s. Controversy over the measures gave rise to the first major confrontation in the United States over the propriety and the constitutionality of ballot-box legislation, or referendums. Opponents of local option, which included drinkers and liquor dealers, many of whom were immigrants, argued that local option authorized the "tyranny of the majority" and infringed upon the rights of the liquor-dealing and liquor-consuming minority.{{cite book |author=Kyle G. Volk |title=Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0199371914 |oclc=870986742 |url={{google books|NTGTAwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}}}} Local option, as a method of alcohol control, made a resurgence after the Civil War. The [Anti-Saloon League](/source/Anti-Saloon_League) initially decided to use local option as the mechanism to bring about nationwide prohibition.{{cite book |title=The Illinois Local Option Law |year=1907 |publisher=Anti-Saloon League of Illinois|hdl = 2027/mdp.39015071423217}} Its intent was to work across the country at the local level. In many instances, however, it was not the agenda. For instance, several wards in [Ontario](/source/Ontario), [Canada](/source/Canada), passed local option but were vehemently against province-wide prohibition since they preferred to isolate alcohol sales, rather than ban them altogether. That is particularly evident in Toronto's [Junction](/source/The_Junction) neighbourhood, part of which remained dry as late as 2000, the last area of [Ontario](/source/Ontario) to repeal prohibition.{{cite book |title=The Campaign Manual |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_77140 |first=Francis Stephens |last=Spence |year=1912 |location=Toronto, Canada |publisher=The Pioneer Office|hdl = 2027/hvd.32044010013027}} Following the [repeal](/source/repeal) of [federal Prohibition](/source/Prohibition_in_the_United_States) in the [United States](/source/United_States) in 1933, some states chose to maintain prohibition within their own borders. Others chose to permit local option on the controversial issue. In the remainder of states, there was no prohibition. Overlying the patchwork of prohibition, many states (known as [alcoholic beverage control state](/source/alcoholic_beverage_control_state)s) decided to establish their own [monopolies](/source/monopolies) over the wholesaling and/or retailing of alcoholic beverages. [Montgomery County, Maryland](/source/Montgomery_County%2C_Maryland), for example, has used local option to establish its alcohol control monopoly within its borders. == Face masks == As a result of the [COVID-19 pandemic](/source/COVID-19_pandemic) some states in the United States of America, such as Georgia, implemented the local option to control laws about public [mask](/source/Face_masks_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_States) wearing enforcement.{{Cite web|date=2020-08-15|title=Executive Order Allows 'Local Option Face Covering Requirement'|url=https://www.nfib.com/content/news/coronavirus-state/executive-order-allows-local-option-face-covering-requirement/|access-date=2020-10-28|website=NFIB|language=en}} ==See also== * [Local option sales tax](/source/Local_option_sales_tax) * [School Infrastructure Local Option](/source/School_Infrastructure_Local_Option) ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{cite book |author=Stephen Edward Cresswell |title=Rednecks, Redeemers, and Race: Mississippi After Reconstruction, 1877-1917 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |series=Heritage of Mississippi |date=December 2010 |pages=104–105 |isbn=978-1617030369 |oclc=799715700 |url={{google books|h71IewAACAAJ|plainurl=y}}}} * {{cite book |title=Local Option Law and Laws Relating to the Manufacture, Sale and Use of Spiritous Liquors |last=Vaughan |first=Colemen C. |series=Local option law |year=1915 |publisher=Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co.|hdl = 2027/mdp.39015071390705}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/local-option-alcohol-laws-in-the-u-s/ |title=Local Option Alcohol Laws in the US: History & Status |last=Hanson, Ph.D. |first=David J. |website=AlcoholProblemsandSolutions.org |date=4 May 2016 |publisher=[State University of New York](/source/State_University_of_New_York)}} * {{cite Nuttall|title=Local Option}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Local Option}} Category:Alcohol law Category:Local government --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Local option](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_option) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_option?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.