In June, three absent county supervisors effectively defeated a proposal to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21-year-old in Essex County, N.Y. Today, they were back, they voted, and the increase passed.

According to a report by SunCommunityNews.com, everyone on the 18-member Essex County Board of Supervisors voted on the matter, with by a weighted vote of 1,755 to 1,116. The county uses a weighted roll-call tally voting system, which assigns each member a certain number of votes based on the population of the area within they county that they represent. The proposal needed 1,461 votes to pass.

Like the version voted on earlier in the summer, the increase also applies to electronic cigarettes and smoking paraphernalia, with violators subject to a hearing in front of the county’s board of health and fines between $300 and $1000 for a first violation, while subsequent violations could reach $1,500.

Essex County is located in the northeastern corner of the state and is home to approximately 40,000 residents.

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Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for MLB.com, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.