Residents in unincorporated areas of Hall County might gain easier access to a liquor store if a law proposed in the Georgia General Assembly is successful.

A bill by Rep. Amos Amerson of Dahlonega seeks to give local governments the power to decide whether residents can vote on liquor sales in their hometowns.

The bill gets its first hearing in committee Thursday. It has the support of Rep. Carl Rogers, R-Gainesville, who heard complaints last year from local government leaders on the constraints of current state law.

Georgia law currently requires that 35 percent of registered voters in any locale seeking to vote on liquor sales sign a petition before it can appear on a ballot.

With some 80,000 registered voters in Hall County, the current law would require about 28,000 to sign such a petition.

Amerson's bill would allow local government leaders to call for the referendum if they can't get the signatures.

It put the brakes on a ballot question that voters in Hall County would have decided in March, surveying whether residents in unincorporated areas wanted package sales of liquor. Voters will still decide whether they want Sunday alcohol package sales of beer and wine and to buy liquor-by-the drink on Sundays.

But until the law is changed, they have little chance of voting on buying packaged liquor any day of the week.

Packaged liquor can be sold in Hall's municipalities.

Amerson said the current law is "antiquated" and too restrictive. The law, as it stands, dates back to Prohibition, Amerson said.

"That thing doesn't allow people the opportunity to vote," said Amerson. "I just want to change that."

In 2011, Amerson proposed a similar bill that failed.

That bill offered to lower the required percentage of voter signatures from 35 percent to 5 percent.

When he couldn't get enough support from lawmakers last year, Amerson said he withdrew it.

After hearing again from local officials on the issue this year, Amerson said he's trying one more time to make it easier for local residents to vote on liquor sales.

This time, he thinks he might have the support he didn't get last year.

"I hope so," said Amerson. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have put the darned thing in."

This time, he hopes local government leaders might help his case. He's invited several of them to testify at Thursday's committee hearing.

Among them will be members of Hall County's Board of Commissioners, who complained to the county's delegation of state lawmakers late last year about the issue.

Commission Chairman Tom Oliver said Amerson's bill "puts everybody on a level playing field."

Oliver and Commissioner Scott Gibbs said they hoped to go to Thursday's committee hearing to show support for the change. They hope to get the support of the state's lobbying group for county governments, too.

"I just think that the county ought to have an equal opportunity," Gibbs said. "If the voters want to have package sales in the county, that should be their option. It should not be virtually impossible to get it on the ballot."