“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
h.l. mencken

commonwealth of virginia
PETITION OF QUALIFIED
VOTERS
FOR REFERENDUM

We the qualified voters of Fort Chiswell Magisterial District of Wythe County, Virginia signed hereunder do hereby petition the circuit court to enter an order, pursuant to 4.1-124 & 24.2-684.1 of the Code of Virginia for a Special Election on Election Day, on the question listed below:

Shall the sale of mixed alcoholic beverages by restaurants licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board be permitted in the Fort Chiswell Magisterial District of Wythe County, Virginia?

It was sometime in early April when I heard that my local Supervisor, Maggie Poole, was circulating a petition to place a referendum on the November ballot to allow restaurants in our District to serve mixed beverages. Like many people I subsequently met, I thought they already could. I had never given it much thought. There are so few restaurants in the 4th district anyway, I just figured they chose not to offer mixed drinks. A liquor license is more expensive and boosts liability insurance premiums.

What’s the big deal?, I thought. After all, beer and wine are widely available throughout the county. They are sold in all the grocery stores and most of the convenience and general stores. There are three wineries in the county, and most restaurants in Wytheville offer cocktails. If someone is going to have too much to drink and get behind the wheel of a car, wouldn’t it be better, I reasoned, to knock 10 miles off their dangerous journey home? It certainly would lessen the chances of being killed or injured by a drunk driver for the rest of us.

I did a little checking and found that a local businessman was interested in opening a Texas Roadhouse franchise in Fort Chiswell. As a condition of the franchise, he had to be able to serve mixed drinks. Sounded reasonable to me. Such a restaurant would mean more decent food, permanent jobs, and increased tax revenues for the two schools in this district. I decided to give Maggie a call and offer to help.

4th District Supervisor Maggie Poole

Prior to training as a chef in 1986, I spent most of the previous decade and a half working in government and politics. I was experienced in the ballot initiative and referendum procedures, having worked on a number of them in several states. I figured this would be a piece of cake. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After I spent more than 30 hours of knocking on doors (Maggie spent an equal number or more), standing in Casa Mexicana, the New River General Store, and outside Food Country attempting to gather signatures just to give voters the RIGHT to vote yes or no on the question, I’m sad to say we failed to garner the 276 signatures necessary to put the referendum on the ballot.

During this process I met a number of people on both sides of the issue who were in favor of allowing the voters to decide. They understood that signing the petition was not an endorsement, but merely an opportunity to allow voters to exercise their constitutional rights.

The ignorance and skepticism of the way our county government works by the majority of people I came in contact with though was disheartening. Some people were down right nasty and rude. I was treated badly, lied to, ignored, preached to and lectured by people who could barely read and write. I was shocked at the number of people who announced they couldn’t vote because they were convicted felons and seemed proud of that fact. In one day, I encountered 11 people in that category, 9 of whom were women under 40. All in all, it was a very negative experience.

The organizers of the petition drive realize now that they made a mistake by limiting the referendum to just the Fort Chiswell District. If the measure had been county wide, we would have plenty of signatures. Almost half of the ones I gathered were from people who live in the adjoining District. They thought they were helping by not being truthful about their polling place, not realizing that the Registrar would strike their names from the petition.

This issue is not going away. It will be back next year, but next time the whole county will have a voice.