What is "local option"

Option \Op"tion\, n. [L. optio; akin to optare to choose, wish, optimus best, and perh. to E. apt: cf. F. option.]

1. The power of choosing; the right of choice or election; an alternative.

   There is an option left to the United States of America, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable, as a nation.
   --Washington.

2. The exercise of the power of choice; choice.

   Transplantation must proceed from the option of the people, else it sounds like an exile.
   --Bacon.

3. A wishing; a wish. [Obs.]
   --Bp. Hall.

4. (Ch. of Eng.) A right formerly belonging to an archbishop to select any one dignity or benefice in the gift of a suffragan bishop consecrated or confirmed by him, for bestowal by himself when next vacant; -- annulled by Parliament in 184

5. 5. (Stock Exchange) A stipulated privilege, given to a party in a time contract, of demanding its fulfillment on any day within a specified limit; also, the contract giving that privelege; as, an option to buy a stock at a given price; to exercise an option.

   Note: A person owning a stock may sell to another person an option or right to buy that stock at some specified price within a specified period of time, and in return will get a premium in consideration for giving the option. If the option price (the strike price) is above the market value for the entire period in which the option is valid, the option is typically not exercised, and expires with no need on the part of the stock owner to transfer the actual stock itself. If however the stock price rises above the option price, the holder of the option may exercise the option, and buy the stock at the specificed price, and may in turn resell the stock at the current market value, perhaps making a net profit on the transaction. The original holder of the stock will receive, in addition to the price at which the stock is sold, the price of the option, and will generally receive more money than if the stock itself were sold at the time that the option was sold. The actual profits for the transaction will depend on the fees that brokers charge for conducting the sales of options and stocks.

   Buyer's option, an option allowed to one who contracts to buy stocks at a certain future date and at a certain price, to demand the delivery of the stock (giving one day's notice) at any previous time at the market price.

   Seller's option, an option allowed to one who contracts to deliver stock art a certain price on a certain future date, to deliver it (giving one day's notice) at any previous time at the market price. Such options are privileges for which a consideration is paid.

   Local option. See under Local.

   Syn: Choice; preference; selection.

   Usage: Option, Choice. Choice is an act of choosing; option often means liberty to choose, and implies freedom from constraint in the act of choosing.

Local \Lo"cal\ (l[=o]"kal), a. [L. localis, fr. locus place: cf. F. local. See Lieu, Locus.] Of or pertaining to a particular place, or to a definite region or portion of space; restricted to one place or region; as, a local custom. Gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. --Shak. Local actions (Law), actions such as must be brought in a particular county, where the cause arises; -- distinguished from transitory actions. Local affection (Med.), a disease or ailment confined to a particular part or organ, and not directly affecting the system. Local attraction (Magnetism), an attraction near a compass, causing its needle to deviate from its proper direction, especially on shipboard. Local battery (Teleg.), the battery which actuates the recording instruments of a telegraphic station, as distinguished from the battery furnishing a current for the line. Local circuit (Teleg.), the circuit of the local battery. Local color.

1. (Paint.) The color which belongs to an object, and is not caused by accidental influences, as of reflection, shadow, etc.

2. (Literature) Peculiarities of the place and its inhabitants where the scene of an action or story is laid.

   Local option, the right or obligation of determining by popular vote within certain districts, as in each county, city, or town, whether the sale of alcoholic beverages within the district shall be allowed.

n. The ability of local political jurisdictions, typically counties or municipalities, to allow decisions on certain controversial issues, especially the sale of alcohol, based on popular vote within their borders.

n. freedom of a local government to determine by popular vote the applicability of a controversial law in their jurisdiction

A local option is the ability of local political jurisdictions, typically counties or municipalities, to allow decisions on certain controversial issues based on popular vote within their borders. In practice, it usually relates to the issue of alcoholic beverage sales.

As described by an encyclopedia in 1907, local option is the "license granted to the inhabitants of a district to extinguish or reduce the sale of intoxicants in their midst." A 1911 Encyclopædia describes it as "specifically used in politics of the power given to the electorate of a particular district to choose whether licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor should be granted or not." This form of "local option" has also been termed "local veto."

Local option regarding alcohol was first used in the temperance movement as a means to bring about prohibition gradually. In the 1830s, temperance activists mobilized to restrict licenses in towns and counties in New England. By the 1840s, temperance reformers demanded state laws to allow local voters to decide whether any liquor licenses would be issued in their localities. Some 12 states and territories had some form of these early local option laws by the late 1840s. Controversy over the measures gave rise to the first major confrontation in the United States over the propriety and constitutionality of ballot-box legislation, or referendums. Opponents of local option, which included drinkers and liquor dealers (many of whom were immigrants) argued that local option authorized the "tyranny of the majority" and infringed upon the rights of the liquor-dealing and liquor-consuming minority.

Local option, as a method of alcohol control, made a resurgence after the Civil War. The Anti-Saloon League initially decided to use local option as the mechanism to bring about nationwide prohibition. Its intent was to work across the country at the local level. In many instances, however, it was not the agenda. For instance, several wards in Ontario, Canada, passed local option but were vehemently against province-wide prohibition, preferring to isolate alcohol sales rather than ban them altogether. That is particularly evident in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood, part of which remained notoriously dry as late as 2000, the last area of Ontario to repeal prohibition.

Following the repeal of national Prohibition in the United States in 1933, some states chose to maintain prohibition within their own borders. Others chose to permit local option on the controversial issue. In the remainder of states, there was no prohibition. Overlying the patchwork of prohibition, many states (known as alcoholic beverage control states) decided to establish their own monopolies over the wholesaling and/or retailing of alcoholic beverages. Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, has used local option to establish its alcohol control monopoly within its borders.