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local option, in the United States, provision of a state law leaving localities free to forbid or to license certain activities within their boundaries. By accommodating differences of circumstance and feeling between different geographic regions, such provisions reduce conflict at the state level. Some laws, such as prohibition of the sale of liquor, that a state legislature may be reluctant to impose on the entire state but that are not ordinarily within the power of local municipalities to enact may be written to permit localities to invoke them at the option of a majority of their voters. Such laws also include fish and game laws, horse-racing regulations, and rent and housing controls.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeannette L. Nolen.