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Wisconsin Rapids to vote on Bush’s fate

The city of Wisconsin Rapids voted this week to put a referendum on the Nov. 7 general election ballot to determine whether President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be impeached. In a 7-1 vote Tuesday night, the Common Council voted to authorize placing the referendum on the ballot, along with other statewide elections for governor and attorney general.

Wisconsin Rapids citizen Bill Dolan introduced the referendum, which started as a 921-signature petition.

"Now the people have their chance to voice their opinion by voting," Dolan said. "We're very pleased with that."

Maynard Paterick, the president of the Wisconsin Rapids Common Council, said he is opposed to the idea of an impeachment referendum, going so far as to call it "ridiculous." In spite of that, however, Paterick voted to put it on the November ballot.

"I just don't think it should be brought up, but I felt I owed it to the [921] people to give them their rights," Paterick said.

The impeachment referendum may give this small northern Wisconsin town of about 18,000 a higher voter turnout.

"I may have to have more election workers, and we're already ordering more ballots because we expect more people," Vernon Borth, Wisconsin Rapids city clerk, said. "This, combined with the governor and sheriff's race, will probably make a bigger turnout."

According to Borth, 10 other important referendums will be on the city's ballot this year. And Dolan, meanwhile, said he is confident his referendum will pass.

"We couldn't reach everyone in the city, but the majority of them that we spoke to were for it," he said. Paterick disagreed with Dolan's assessment and said the resolution's vague wording and lack of specific reasoning will affect voter response.

"If they state they want the war ended in Iraq, it may be a different story, but that's not the way this referendum was made out," Paterick said. "I think it'll be defeated something terrible." In addition, Paterick said he and several other Common Council members were confused why a federal issue has become a city council issue.

Referendums similar to the one in Wisconsin Rapids will also be on ballots in Berkeley, Calif.; Champaign City, Ill.; Cunningham Township, Ill.; Pittsville, Wis.; and San Francisco.

"I think it'll show the [Bush] administration that the people are concerned enough to fight for this referendum on the ballot," Dolan said. "And hopefully it'll change their thinking."