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No Alcohol

Voters Reject Alcohol Sales in Marshall County

By WestKyStar Staff

BENTON, KY - Marshall Countians have voted to remain dry. The referendum Tuesday was defeated 6,906 to 6,211.

Precinct-by-precinct totals found the "No" votes prevailing in most every area of the county with the exception of the lakes area.

Published 11:56 PM, Tuesday Jul. 17, 2012
Updated 04:55 PM, Sunday Jul. 22, 2012

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- Name: mark s.
  
  7/21/2012 8:18:06 PM
  
  s.s. why don't you get a life and keep your nose out of other peoples business.
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  7/21/2012 12:08:02 PM
  
  If you are referring to the report on fat people I heard it on a news report. I am not from Marshall county. But lets face it we must be controlled in every facet of our lives, they are not quite there yet but they are working on it.
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  7/21/2012 11:19:52 AM
  
  I heard a report the other day that being fat now kills more people than smoking. Lets ban fat people too.
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  7/21/2012 8:20:56 AM
  
  Oh good deal, next tobacco then oversized drinks, fatty foods, sugar, butter, meat from animals without a cloven hoof, fish without scales, caffene, aspertaame, etc. Oh, don't forget the guns and cars because they kill people. Woops, I almost forgot science class. Then life will be good.
  
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  Name: charles m.
  
  7/20/2012 9:27:05 PM
  
  Why is it that you folks who don't live in Marshall County are so concerned with how people vote in the county? At least it gave you something to make fun of, and folks to look down your noses at. Probably the people in Marshall County who drink voted wet, and the people who don't drink voted dry. It was pretty close, with several thousand voting either way. Whichever way they voted, they had reasons that were good enough to them. That's about all anybody can say about it with any degree of accuracy.
  
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  Name: M C.
  
  7/20/2012 11:34:24 AM
  
  dr p., don't forget that Murray will soon be getting some of that sweet, sweet Marshall county booze money too! Stay dry and stay thirsty! Say No Now will soon have new allies in the new liquor sellers down there.
  
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  Name: dr p.
  
  7/20/2012 3:10:35 AM
  
  this is great, thanks to all of you blind individuals in MC, mccracken county will continue to keep collecting your precious tax dollars from alcohol sales, whether your county is wet or not there will always be alcohol in your county,. go to the southside of paducah on a friday evening and it is crammed packed with marshall county residents, go to leeder bottoms on a friday afternoon and its loaded with graves and carlisle residents!! thank you to all of mccracken counties dry neighbors, you are paving our roads and helping maintain our county!! open your eyes you idiots
  
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  Name: kevin h.
  
  7/19/2012 6:05:11 PM
  
  Or step into the backroom at either Benton Or Calvert Country clubs and get you a nice cold beer from the "coke" machine back there.
  
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  Name: s s.
  
  7/19/2012 11:44:07 AM
  
  Benton dry? Haha step into the elks lodge on a Sunday in the winter and you’ll see standing room only (including mr miller).
  
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  Name: charles m.
  
  7/19/2012 8:30:03 AM
  
  Kevin H., I don't have a horse in the race either, but I do know that when the states repealed national prohibition through the 21st Amendment, states retained the right to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages. It's pretty much that simple. Nobody did anything illegal to have a vote in Marshall County on the sale of alcoholic beverages. That was guaranteed by state law. And if somebody introduces an amendment to alter the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, to somehow change the interpretation of that constitutional guarantee, and the new amendment is ratified by a majority of the states, it will become law. But a lot of the stuff that you summarized isn't constitutional now, and even the majority of people in a state or the nation couldn't change anything without first ratifying an amendment to the Constitution to do so. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not trying to stir up anything, but the majority doesn't always rule, especially when it involves a fad or passing social fancy.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/19/2012 7:48:18 AM
  
  I dont know if this is true or not,a man in calvert city told me that all the bible thumpers got their church buses to take all the old folks who could not see across the street and could not understand anything that they hear to the polls to vote marshall co.dry.If this is true this is just as bad as buying votes.
  
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  Name: kevin h.
  
  7/18/2012 6:20:35 PM
  
  You know what yall, i don't have an egg in the basket. The vote doesnt effect me where i live. BUT, M.L. You dont care as long as the people decide. So what happens when 51% decides that it's ok to take your guns away. Or to make tobacco illegal, Or that your kids have to be members of a mosque, Or that you have to drive a yellow car instead of a red one. We have a constitution to guarantee our freedoms, yet each year we allow more and more of them to disappear. In 1933, there was an admendment passed that stated that prohibition was repealed. Yet 53% of the voters in MC say it's still illegal. Freedoms, once lost are hard to restore.
  
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  Name: M. L.
  
  7/18/2012 5:46:27 PM
  
  @eddy a. I was just commenting on the pro liquor crowd using legalizing liquor as such a major boost to the local economy. It's the same argument used by the pro gambling crowds. If it really gave the economic boost they claim it would then Paducah and Metropolis would be growing instead of shrinking population as the have from one census to the other. I could care less whether either liquor or gambling passed or not as long as the voters decide the issue as they did in this election. But I have personally thought the arguments for and against this issue were baseless for the most part. That's just my opinion.
  
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  Name: kevin h.
  
  7/18/2012 5:19:32 PM
  
  And all those people who love MC the way it is, well, i remember the lakes area in the 60's and 70's when tourism was booming. If MC had gone wet back then, they could probably be something of a tourist destination like Branson and Gatlinburg are today. Instead, money continues to bleed from the county, nothing new goes will come in and the tourists find other places to spend their money. Which is just the way the ones with the right last names in the county want it. If new businesses and people come to the lakes area, they will have their hold and power over the county eroded away.
  
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  Name: kevin h.
  
  7/18/2012 5:12:50 PM
  
  S.T. all this does is let the backyard drinkers and the hypocrits continue to buy their alcohol in Paducah so their neighbors won't see them walking into a liquer store in MC.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 3:19:36 PM
  
  @M.L. The fact is that paducah and metropolis is doing alot better than marshall co. because of liquor sales.Paducah and mwtropolis has had grow and new jobs for people and new tax income for the county and city.The only thing that i know of is a new walmart in benton a one horse town.Most everyone in marshall co come to paducah to eat and by chose have a beer.What do they have in marshall co. like paducah and metropolis.I will tell what they have nothing to do and no where special to go and eat like paducah.If you are going to have grow you will have places for people to go to and places that people want to eat at.You can not keep living with your head stuck in the hole you are going to have pull it out of the hole so you can see daylight sometimes.We are not living in the dark ages this is the year 2012.
  
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  Name: R W.
  
  7/18/2012 2:52:32 PM
  
  Judy: If they are hurting for money, it is their own fault. They ran the kids off. Unlike this issue, they did not listen to what the people wanted. I saw one post (can't remember who) that said he didn't want to live in Paducah. In a way, I can understand that. If you live in Paducah, on many issues, you don't get a voice.
  
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  Name: M C.
  
  7/18/2012 2:20:36 PM
  
  If being dry were the cure for business growth, then Carlisle and Hickman Counties have got to be booming! Clinton should be a mega city by now with all of the income they are pulling in from not selling liquor!!!
  
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  Name: Concerned C.
  
  7/18/2012 2:04:45 PM
  
  Give God the glory. He is worthy of our praise!
  
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  Name: S. T.
  
  7/18/2012 1:54:04 PM
  
  WOW!! For some of you on here, it's like arguing if it is possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. Fact of the matter is, there is as much alcohol in Marshall County now, as it ever would have been if it were wet. Keeping it dry doesn't benefit the county one bit. The back porch drinkers, will continue to drink on the back porch (GOD will never see them there). There will continue to be "social issues", DUI's, burglary's, murders, etc., etc. even with it being dry. Keep your head in the sand and maybe you'll never see the light. Congrats to the "We are Marshall" folks. C'mon over to Murray, I'll buy you a beer.
  
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  Name: M. L.
  
  7/18/2012 1:43:01 PM
  
  If liquor sales were the cure for business growth, then Paducah has got to be booming. Metropolis, IL should be a mega city by now with all of the income they are pulling in from their liquor sales and gambling income!!!LOL
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  7/18/2012 1:42:29 PM
  
  RW: If you have a kid in McCracken Middle school you will find that they are preparing them for the new high school. This year All supplies WILL be purchased at school. All suppliea WILL be alike. All children WILL conform so they will be ready for group think when they get to the new school. They actually say they can save us money through bulk purchases. I wonder if they buy more than Wal Mart does? Could it be they are trying to make money off the parents to make up for the million or so they lost last year from students who fled. I know they cut out preschool buses and are putting preschoolers in school all day two days a week, they also fired all of the aids for the handicapped and special needs kids. I do hope they are hurting for money.
  
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  Name: Mr. G.
  
  7/18/2012 1:38:29 PM
  
  I saw several average hard working folks at the poll when I was there. Not sure of their religous beleifs. People are not as foolish as you vote yes people beleive. Ask yourself one question. Would you want even the possibility of living next door to a bar, liqour store, strip club or who knows what else 20 years down the road if the vote would have went wet. Absolutetly NOT! You are asking people to gamble on this possibilty for zero concrete plans just speculation. The only guarntee you offered was expansion of already properous buisnesses with limited low paying service industry jobs created.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 1:32:33 PM
  
  @MR.G.One more thing their is good jobs with larage resort chain co's not just bartenders and waitress their is resort manager,resort public relation,resort marketing.Marshall co people like their little world just like it is and dont want any outsiders to come to marshall co because it would change thing.They want to be just as backward as they can be.Some people even has ask if some people in marshall co still use outdoor toilets.
  
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  Name: Jason H.
  
  7/18/2012 1:17:40 PM
  
  To Eddie, Mr. G., and others. I feel that you all have missed the argument here. It's about Freedom, simple as that. What happens when you are not in the majority Mr. G.? Should another religion's beliefs be forced upon you, simply because there are more of them at the time? Is that Freedom? Not in my book, but we've all gladly handed the Gov't a little of our Freedom for the veil of security over the years, I guess we've become conditioned to it. However, that's just my opinion, I may be wrong, who knows.
  
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  Name: John C.
  
  7/18/2012 12:52:36 PM
  
  Mr.G, I don't want to be a Know it all like some but seeing the percentage of voters who voted, I think the middle of the road voters as you call them didn't even vote. I think mostly church people were against it and the others voted for it. I think every body made up their mind a long time ago just as most of us know we are going to vote for Romney or Obama. If you haven't made up your mind yet, then you probably don't know why you're going into a booth anyway. But I know a person that will go out of Murray to buy liquor but voted against wet. Now, somebody that doesn't go to church anyway, why should they be ashamed to be seen buying in Murray.
  
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  Name: R W.
  
  7/18/2012 12:45:50 PM
  
  At least Marshall Countians can be thankful that the residents are given the option to vote on issues such as this that impacts residents of the county. Not like McCracken whose county/city government/commissioners/boards, etc., make decisions like consolidating the high schools in McCracken County without putting it to the vote of the people. The bottom line in McCracken County is that if the officials want it and they know the majority of the residents don't want it, they are not going to put it up for a vote because they don't want to lose. Such was the case with this school. They knew the residents didn't want this & knew if it went for a vote they would lose, so they just barrelled through regardless. Marshall County: be thankful that at least your county government gives you a voice.
  
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  Name: Mr. G.
  
  7/18/2012 12:36:59 PM
  
  I would guess they will probably work in Paducah and live in MC just as I have done. I do not want to live in Paducah, sorry but I don't. John C. not personal just facts. You need to get over the moral issue because thats not why the wet vote lost, of course the church vote greatly influenced the outcome as it always will. The middle of the road folks decided the outcome. These people can recongize a con from a real plan.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 12:23:01 PM
  
  MR. G. Let us get real if your kids go to college and come back to marshall co where are they going to work.
  
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  Name: John C.
  
  7/18/2012 12:22:03 PM
  
  MANY PEOPLE THAT GO TO CHURCH AND I'M NOT SAYING ALL OR MOST BUT MANY, THINK THEY ARE BETTER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE. They can't see the forest for the tree. Sorry about the upper case but it was on lock and I look at the keyboard while typing. If people would be concerned with their own life instead of trying to tell everybody else how to live, it would be a better world.
  
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  Name: John C.
  
  7/18/2012 12:12:03 PM
  
  Mr.G, I don't know why you made this personal with me but since you have, let me ask you this, why is it that you know everything and nobody else knows anything. Could it be that your name is really Mr. Know It All.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 12:10:45 PM
  
  @Concerned C. their is not one word in the bible that has said that having a drank of alcohol is a sin.Only a drunkard would not go to heaven.You have been brain washed.Alcohol can not sin only a man can sin in his behavior by getting drunk.So let us all have a total understanding what a sin is.Do you think that GOD is going to send me to hell for having one beer.I guess i do not understand some people where they get all this from when their is not one word in the bible that if you have a beer you have sin.What is this world coming to may GOD have mercy on our souls.
  
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  Name: Mr. G.
  
  7/18/2012 12:09:45 PM
  
  No nothing wrong with bartenders or waitresses jobs. Weak argument to say if dry kids have no jobs after college and say bartenders and waitress jobs Really? I personaly do not want my children to go to college and then come back to MC as a waitress. Eddy then who would it benefit if real tourist type attractions will not come to this area because of location. It benefits only buisnesses such as Moor's and people who have property that's value would greatly increase. Get a real plan with commitments from legit companies instead of wanting a blanket wet vote with promises and no concrete plans.
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  7/18/2012 11:49:37 AM
  
  Does this issue really have anything to do with greed or is it all about CONTROL. Mr G: Is there something wrong with working in a package liquor store or as a bar tender. My friend who worked in and retired from a package liquor store never missed mass, never beat her kids, never grew two heads and never ate dead babies, but she did have a pay check. Bartenders make good money and control how much people can drink. They are regular people in regular jobs. I guess that if there any moonshine stills around they are happy that business won't drop off.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 11:29:09 AM
  
  Actually Mr.G. it is your responsibility to control your kids if they are under the legal age to buy alcohol.First of all you have to have a county incentive package and a state incentive package to give to these larage resort chain co's to build on the lake.I do not think that they would want to locate close to ky dam or calwert city.They want to be on the water and not by a state park.Greed does not have any part of this,it is about outside investment in marshall co.But some people like you think that alcohol is bad and would be bad for marshall co.When some people come here and find out that marshall co is dry and they have to go all the way to paducah to buy beer and come all the way back to marshall co have said that they would not be back.For there is not very much for my family to do in marshall co.Without outside investment for the future marshall co will die because you dont want nothing and you dont want anybody to have anything.
  
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  Name: Concerned C.
  
  7/18/2012 11:23:46 AM
  
  O' victory in Jesus... To God be the glory.
  
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  Name: Joe S.
  
  7/18/2012 10:40:14 AM
  
  Given that about 1/3 of Marshall County workers are working in McCracken or Calloway Counties, and that anyone in Marshall County will be able to walk into a liquor store in less than a 20 minute drive, the whole notion of keeping the place "dry" puts such a minor damper on those that want to drink that I really wonder -- what's the point? One motivator is that some people think that if they don't drink, that others should be denied the choice as well. Oh well -- more tax dollars and jobs for Paducah and Murray! YAY! Maybe that's why Marshall County only grew by 4% in the last Census -- the lowest growth rate since the 1940s.
  
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  Name: Mr. G.
  
  7/18/2012 10:05:17 AM
  
  Actually just the opposite eddie, I was thinking of my kids and every other child in MC when I cast my vote and unlike you who was thinking about your greedy self because you want to make a extra dollar. I think people can see the economic impact on Calvert City, man it is really booming isn't it, have you seen all the hotels being built wow. It is about 3 miles from the interstate (wet)to Ky. Dam. If the wet folks were legit and come before the people with a couple of commitments from Large Resort chain companies to build on Lake front property. I think it would pass with the understanding that each precent will decide. This election was about religion but was lost by individual greed. You have 3 years to come up with a real plan instead of attempting to get rich.
  
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  Name: George P.
  
  7/18/2012 9:40:50 AM
  
  Proud of you Marshall County Residents.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 9:29:10 AM
  
  @Mr.G. You can not sell your soul because your soul does not belong to you Your soul only belong to GOD.Their would not have been a bar are a liquor store next to you.A county ordinance for residence and business zones for alcohol sales.You are thinking about no one but yourself.
  
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  Name: Mr. G.
  
  7/18/2012 9:26:57 AM
  
  Eddie I don't paticulary want my kids to grow up and work as a bartender or at package store. I know there would be some economic impact if the vote would have went wet. Only a handful of people stood to make real money if the vote would have went wet and those folks were at the forefront of the vote yes campaign. Just because Mrs. Womack and Dr. Ford stood to make money in property owned does not mean that the average citizen would benefit, actually the average citizen would lose. Now its over for at least 3 years be a good loser and say that the people spoke.
  
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  Name: eddy a.
  
  7/18/2012 9:02:35 AM
  
  The people in marshall co like their little world just as it is.For the people do not want a change in a changing world.They are thinking about today and not thinking about the future.So what kind of future is marshall co going to have if they are not ready for a change.They are not going to have much of nothing but ky lake.And this is not going to bring the jobs that marshall co needs for the people.Be for you can have outside investment in your county you are going to have to change this will bring jobs for the people.If this is not done your kids will have to leave to find work not in their home town where they would like to be.What kind of future do you want them to have where there is no jobs.Sometimes it is so hard to try to understand what some people are thinking about,i guess they are thinking about their self.
  
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  Name: Mr. G.
  
  7/18/2012 8:55:54 AM
  
  Nope John C. you are dead wrong, Obama voters are the ones that were in favor of wet. True conservatives voted no for two reasons. One we are not willing to sell our soul for a few dollars, greed is a evil thing. Two although I am not against a person having a drink, I do not want to live next to a bar or liquor store. I think we saw folks true colors during this campaign. I never heard where Mike Miller and the majority of our public officals stood on this issue. Guess we will just have to guess and remember those good ol boys during election time.
  
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  Name: John C.
  
  7/18/2012 8:28:05 AM
  
  Many people in the lake area get their business from tourist and many of the people that vacation here drink, like it or not. These places could have done a lot of business but now the people will just buy it some where else and still have it. Probably the closest place now will be Murray. Of course, may people will now say Murray is going to hell in a hand basket, I don't believe that. The people that drink now will still drink and the ones that don't won't. I don't think that a person is going to wake up and say I'm going to start drinking. Another thing, I bet that many people that voted against wet also voted for Obama who believes in gay marriage, abortion, out of control taxes and his EPA believes in shutting down everything that isn't green.
  
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