This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
You can drink a couple of beers before you go to the polls on Election Day, but not a glass of wine. Unless you're at the airport, where adults can order wine, cocktails or a vodkas on the rocks - as long you show identification.
The restrictions are just one part of Utah's patchwork of alcohol laws designed to keep voters from getting liquored up before they hit the polls Nov. 7.
If you're planning to attend a banquet at a hotel on Election Day, the rules get trickier.
Retired FBI agent Lou Bertram, who trains restaurant servers on the intricacies of Utah liquor laws, remembers getting a frantic call from Little America one year asking if customers could be served 3.2 beer at a banquet.
Bertram told the servers they could tap dance and hand out all the Sprite and Coke they had in stock, but the diners couldn't have a drop of light beer. But if some of the diners wandered into the hotel's restaurant or a full-service eatery down the street, they could drink a bottle of beer.
Better yet, banquetgoers could have stopped at a grocery or convenience store and picked up a six pack or a wine cooler.
Earl Dorius, head of licensing and compliance with the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Department, explained the history behind Election Day alcohol restrictions.
"Sometime in the good old days a candidate could take voters to a saloon, buy a couple of drinks and get them liquored up pretty good before they went back to the polls," he said. "After Prohibition was lifted [in 1933] many states didn't want liquor associated with buying votes at election time."
While this year's Election Day liquor laws may seem complex, it could be worse. Until recently, the Salt Lake City International Airport was forbidden to sell any beer or liquor to travelers on Election Day, even those stopping briefly to transfer to other planes.
"Try explaining that to a guy from Butte, Montana, stopping in Salt Lake to board a plane for Denver," said instructor Bertram. "It was our way of telling tourists, 'Welcome to Utah.' "
Colorado abolished such restrictions 15 years ago. Montana's liquor agencies will be closed Nov. 7, but voters can pick up all the wine and beer they want at just about any grocery or licensed store they pass on their way to the polls.
Chances are that few travelers have heard of Election Day liquor laws as a majority of the states, 29 of them, have no alcohol bans on Nov. 7, according to the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.
Utah is among nine states enacting some type of ban on Nov. 7, while 12 other states allow local municipalities to decide.
Election Day liquor laws
No alcohol except 3.2 beer before polls close at 8 p.m. may be served at:
* Small liquor outlets at hotels, rural areas or wineries
* Restaurants serving distilled spirits, wine and heavy beer
* Restaurants serving only wine and heavy beer
* Private clubs serving distilled spirits, wine and heavy beer
Stricter rules for hotels, resorts and special events:
* Hotels and resorts may not serve alcohol of any kind at banquets - including light beer that can be sold all day at any grocery or convenience store.
* Festivals or other single event permit holders may not serve alcohol
Light 3.2 beer sales: may also be regulated by local ordinances; contact local city or county attorney for more restrictions