Election Day liquor sales sought

Wine with lunch? Not on Election Day in Utah.

But if Sen. Scott McCoy can persuade his colleagues, this will be Utah's last election where wine and liquor can't be served in commercial establishments while polls are open.

"This whole notion of not being able to drink on the day you're voting is just archaic," said McCoy, D-Salt Lake City. "You can get completely liquored up at home and go vote if you want to, or you can have a glass of wine at home while you fill out at an absentee ballot, yet on Election Day you can't walk into a restaurant at noon and have a glass of wine. It seems there's a bizarre inconsistency."

The ban on the sale of liquor, wine and full-strength beer in restaurants and bars while polls are open on Election Day is one of several liquor laws McCoy says have no rational basis. Polls in many counties don't close until 8 p.m.

Utah has some of the most restrictive liquor laws in the nation. Many people consider the laws to be a tourist deterrent, particularly the law requiring a paid membership to enter any bar that serves liquor.

Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman has said he'd like to see the state's liquor laws loosened, as have members of the state board of tourism. But Huntsman said earlier this year he wouldn't seek any changes during his first term in his office, which ends next year.

Liquor law changes are challenging in Utah.

Most of the state's residents and members of the Legislature are Mormons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prohibits its members from drinking alcohol, and trying to make any liquor-law changes without its blessing dooms most legislation.

The church opposed any loosening of Utah's alcohol laws for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and many lawmakers agreed, although some temporary changes were made to city ordinances for the Games.

Bobbie Coray, a recent appointee to the state liquor commission and who does not drink for religious reasons, proposed hiding liquor bottles from view in restaurants, so those people who don't drink aren't offended by the sight of them.

McCoy acknowledges revising any liquor law will be difficult.

"It's the one issue where...the stars have to align, basically," he said. "This state and our culture have always been very, very concerned with any kind of idea or perception that the state promotes liquor."