By a wide margin Tuesday, voters approved a referendum to amend the constitution, which requires that liquor be served from sealed containers of two ounces or less, and to allow the Legislature to craft new liquor rules.

The vote is a victory for the Hospitality Association of South Carolina, S.C. Chamber of Commerce, S.C. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the S.C. Association of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Authorities, Gov. Mark Sanford and most legislators.

Opposing the referendum was the Palmetto Hospitality Association, a group primarily funded by the president of one of the state's largest minibottle distributors, Ben Arnold Sunbelt Beverages Co. of Columbia.

With most precincts counted, the referendum was headed for approval by a 59-41 margin.

Trever Bowen of Charleston was among those hoping the state would stick with minibottles.

"I like them, because you know what you're getting," he said, after finishing a drink at the bar of A.W. Shucks in downtown Charleston. "We have to keep (the constitutional requirement) because it's the only thing South Carolina has left to be unique."

A.W. Shucks bartender Jessie Watts said most customers she has spoken with didn't like minibottles, and she said bartenders like herself universally dislike them. "I know all the bartenders want to do away with them," she said.

Watts said minibottles also cause problems with out-of-state tourists who don't understand that a drink involving more than one liquor will be a pricey concoction containing 3.4 ounces of booze.

"People come in and get agitated when they realize a White Russian is $10," she said.

Proponents of the constitutional change said minibottles are a life-and-death issue. They blame 1.7-ounce minibottles, which contain about a half-ounce of liquor more than the typical free-poured drink, for South Carolina's high rate of alcohol-related fatalities.

The Palmetto Hospitality Association warned in television ads that aired for weeks that approval of allowing a constitutional change would give the Legislature "a blank check" to tinker with liquor laws.

"No plan, no way," said the ads.

When the minibottle provision was added to the state constitution in the 1970s, it cleared the way for bars and restaurants to serve liquor, replacing a system where customers brought their own liquor and paid for glasses, ice and mixers.

The minibottle rule was seen as a way to limit the size of drinks while providing assurance that liquor was both taxed and unadulterated.

But as years passed, the typical free-poured drink got smaller in other states as drunken-driving laws got stricter. Meantime, the amount of alcohol in a minibottle increased from 1.5 to 1.7 ounces as international distillers switched to the metric system and adopted the 50-ml. bottle.

"For years, the customers have told us they wanted to eliminate the little bottles and have more choice," said HASC President Tom Sponseller. "The hope is that the General Assembly will act quickly when they come back in January."

State lawmakers will need to craft new rules for liquor, and new ways to tax liquor, to replace the 25-cent tax now collected on each minibottle sold by distributors. The House and a Senate committee this year considered a plan to replace the 25-cent minibottle tax with a new 5 percent tax on liquor drinks.

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