Nashville’s Wine-In-Grocery Activists Have Twice The Signatures Needed, If They’re All Valid

Even if the wine in supermarket referendum passes, it won’t take effect until 2016. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Voters in towns like Murfreesboro, Lebanon and Mount Juliet will be asked if they want wine in grocery stores in November. But the process of getting it on the Nashville ballot is still hanging in the balance.

Wine in grocery store advocates say 30,000 people have signed petitions. That’s double what they need to put the referendum to Nashville voters. But just because thousands have signed the petition at grocery stores around the city, there’s no guarantee the signatures came from registered voters.

Kroger Spokeswoman Melissa Eads, who’s working with the wine in grocery stores campaign, said they’ll soon find out how many of the signatures are legitimate.

Petition signees have to write their name exactly as it appears on their voter registration; they have to be registered to vote in Davidson County; and they have to live within city limits.

“You would be surprised at the number of signatures we get that aren’t validated, for various reasons,” said Eads.

She said early voting and Thursday’s election has the election commission’s full attention, so officials there have not been able to certify all the signatures yet.

“So our efforts continue. We’re not going to lay off because we’ve collected more than we need. We want to make sure. We don’t want to take any chances,” said Eads.

The deadline for turning in petitions for the November ballot is Aug. 21.

Petitions have to get signatures from 10 percent of the voters who cast ballots in the last governor’s race. So the bar is higher for bigger cities with more voters.

Even if voters in towns and cities approve wine in grocery stores in November, it won’t take effect until 2016.