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LOCAL News :: Elections & Legislation : Peace

FYI: More IL Townships To Vote on War

[Here's a fuller report on the topic. Unfortunately, Cook County requires a tougher petition process, which CAWI and others will being organizing. --CarlD]

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Anti-war ballot item
elicits different responses

By Leslie Hague
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Sandwiched in between road fund requests and water surveys, some township residents tackled a new topic this week: the war in Iraq.

Several anti-war groups presented petitions at annual township meetings to hold an advisory referendum to pull troops out of Iraq.

In several townships, including Geneva, Aurora and Downers Grove, the issue will be on the November ballot.

'This is a question for the people,' said Siobhan Kolar, a member of the Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice group. 'We’re spending trillions of dollars in Iraq and over 2,000 people have died.'

Representatives from the loosely organized Illinois Coalition for Peace and Justice placed questions on the ballots of eight out of 21 townships whose meetings they attended in Kane, DuPage, Cook and DeKalb counties on Tuesday night, according to organizers.

Critics said townships were the wrong place for people to bring national concerns.

'It trivializes what townships do,' said Brad Hahn, a spokesman for U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. 'It’s extremely disappointing that it’s being manipulated for a partisan purpose.'

Activists in several townships got a chilly reception. In some, including Lisle Township, the item wasn’t even put on the agenda, said DuPage Against War Now co-founder Kathy Slovick.

In Milton Township, where the measure was voted down, resident David DeMotte told group members their efforts were dishonorable.

'Don’t try to come in here and take over a meeting,' he said to boos from group members.

Under state statute, township residents can ask for an issue of public policy to be put to an advisory referendum at townships’ annual meetings, which were on Tuesday. If a majority of residents at that meeting vote for it, it is the township’s responsibility to put it on the ballot.

Slovick said it was part of the democratic process to have a vote.

'This is part and parcel of giving people a voice,' she said. 'Ideally, this is one of the purest examples of grass-roots democracy.'

Last week, 24 of 32 Wisconsin towns that had a similar advisory referendum on the ballot passed the question to withdraw troops. The referendums are nonbinding.

Both Kane and DuPage groups said they were looking into putting a countywide advisory referendum on the November ballot with the same question, which would ask if people thought the United States should immediately begin an 'orderly and rapid' withdrawal' of troops from Iraq.

'We have to look into that,' Slovick said. 'Believe me, we have not exhausted our options.'

From

www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp.
 
 

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