Most voters in Connecticut think that liquor stores should be able to sell alcohol on Sundays, according to poll results Quinnipiac University released on Wednesday.
Of the 1,622 registered voters the polling institute surveyed, 54 percent support scrapping current law and allowing sales of alcohol on Sundays, while 42 percent said they don't support the change.
Quinnipiac also found that voters would like more choice when it comes to buying alcohol in supermarkets, with 43 percent in favor of supermarkets selling beer and wine, 32 percent approving of beer only and 20 percent believing grocery stores should be able to sell liquor in addition to beer and wine.
"Connecticut may be the land of steady habits but no Sunday liquor sales is one habit voters are ready to kick," Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said in a statement.
However, voters oppose allowing convenience stores at gas stations to sell beer, by a margin of 63 percent to 35 percent.
"Voters would like supermarkets to be allowed to sell wine, but don't want to see convenience stores at gas stations sell beer. Perhaps this is out of concern for making it too easy to drink and drive,” Schwartz said.
On Tuesday, the General Assembly's General Law Committee approved parts of Gov. Dannel Malloy's plan to overhaul the state's liquor laws, including allowing alcohol sales between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sundays.
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The Blue Laws have been in effect since the 1650s and the state passed a liquor control act in 1933, at the end of the Prohibition, which prohibited alcohol sales on Sundays.
Connecticut would be the 49th state to allow Sunday alcohol sales.
Lawmakers scrapped Malloy's recommendations to allow convenience stores to sell beer, extend restaurant hours and increase package store hours until 10 p.m.
The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
