Metro Atlanta communities vote to allow earlier Sunday booze sales

Some areas appeared to approve new Sunday alcohol rules. Voters seemed to pass referenda allowing Sunday alcohol sales earlier in the day. The change appears approved in Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth and Gwinnett. Several cities appear to have passed it, including Acworth, Atlanta, Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Peachtree Corners and Powder Springs. Senate Bill 17, passed this year, allows local governments to put referenda about this topic on the ballot.

Bottoms up.

Every metro Atlanta community that held a referendum Tuesday on allowing earlier Sunday alcohol sales  appeared to approve the measure.

Senate Bill 17 — the so-called "Brunch Bill" or "Mimosa Mandate" — passed through Georgia's legislature earlier this year, giving local governments the opportunity to call referendums on allowing Sunday drink sales to start at 11 a.m. rather than 12:30 p.m. A total of 87 counties and cities across Georgia added such referendums to Tuesday's ballots, according to the Secretary of State's Office. About 30 of those communities were in the immediate metro Atlanta area.

Referendums held in Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth and Gwinnett passed by significant margins. City of Atlanta voters also approved the measure.

Voters in several other cities did so as well. Those cities included Acworth, Alpharetta, Austell, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, College Park, Duluth, Hapeville, Kennesaw, Marietta, Milton, Peachtree Corners, Powder Springs, Roswell, Sandy Springs, Smyrna, South Fulton, Stone Mountain, Tucker, Union City and Woodstock.

Local governments can establish their own dates for earlier sales to start, should their referendums pass.

--Reporter Ben Brasch contributed to this article.