While the dust has mostly settled around the results of last Tuesday’s historic election, we continue to get reports from around the country on voters approving of alcohol beverage sales in one form or another.  Here’s an update.

For the first time in 70 years citizens in Angelina County, Texas will be able to purchase alcohol beverages — because voters approved Proposition 1 and 2 which allows beer and wine to be sold for off-premise consumption and mixed drinks to be served  in restaurants and bars (without customers first having to “purchase a membership”).

And in Haywood and Hardeman Counties in Tennessee voters approved liquor by the drink — which means if you go to a restaurant or hotel in either of these counties you’ll be able to order up your favorite drink (in those establishments that have obtained the proper license).

Residents in Weller Township,  voted to “go wet”.  In other words you will soon be able to by a beer, wine or mixed drink in a restaurant in that town.

Similarly, voters in Zeeland, Michigan have ended a century-old ban on alcohol sales so someday soon (that is, relative to the 100 year ban) you’ll be able to get a drink at a restaurant or buy alcohol beverages at the grocery store.

Also, voters in Dawson County, South Carolina voted to allow the package stores in that county to open on Sunday.

Lastly — and to update you on an item my colleague mentioned last week — voters in Oklahoma approved a measure that will permit alcohol sales on election days.  Halleluiah.

Numerous other measures regarding the sale alcohol beverages were voted on last week and we’ll continue to update you as those results come in.

OK, so Election Day has come and gone and lots of politicians who annoyed the electorate are now gone too. Americans went to the polls and spoke their minds, rather loudly it would appear from seeing the gigantic shifts in Washington and in many states.

That’s fine, but there are some election results you may just have missed. I’m not sure why Katie Couric and Brian Williams and Anderson Cooper skipped over them, but hey..

Anyway, I know you will be pleased to learn that the very enlightened citizens of Rock Hill, North Carolina approved a ballot measure that now permits a patron in a restaurant to have a drink on a Sunday. The question passed with 61 percent for approval. The large margin even surprised supporters, according to The Charlotte Observer. So, now you can have a Smirnoff cocktail at a restaurant after church, a Guinness while watching Sunday NFL games, or maybe a glass of Sterling wine with Sunday dinner. Well, hey, it is the year 2007!

Not to be outdone, the land of Dorothy and Toto (who wasn’t then, but is now, of legal drinking age…well, not Toto, but Dorothy). I’m talking about Kansas (remember, “Gee, Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”).

Ballot measures in Kechi and Park City, Kansas passed now allowing Sunday sales of alcohol and in Clearwater voters approved selling packaged liquor (like from a retail shop) on Sundays.

This is as it should be. Presumably the wedding at Cana occurred on a Sunday. Well, Jesus turned water into wine at that grand event, good wine too according to the Scriptures. If alcohol had been the wrong thing, then don’t you think he would have done it the other way around and turned wine into water!

Amen!