Voters in more than one-third of Massachusetts' cities and towns will get a rare chance to register their opinion on the war in Iraq next month when they consider a ballot question on whether the United States should immediately withdraw all troops.

The nonbinding question asks voters in all or parts of 139 municipalities whether their state representative should be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling on President Bush and Congress to end the war and bring the soldiers home.

The American Friends Service Committee, one of several groups that organized volunteers to fan out across the state to collect signatures in the spring and summer to get the question on ballots, said yesterday that more voters can consider the Nov. 7 ballot question than any other advisory policy issue in state history.

The question, which was approved for the ballot in recent weeks by Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin , will be considered by communities as far west as Hancock in the Berkshires and as far east as Provincetown, as large as Boston and as small as Gill, and as conservative by reputation as Orange and as liberal as Cambridge. About 22 percent of the state's registered voters will get the chance to have their say, organizers estimated.

Voters have approved similar bring-the-troops-home resolutions in recent months as part of statewide efforts in Vermont and Wisconsin, and in scores of cities from Chicago to Chapel Hill, N.C.

``Our sense is that opposition to the war among the general population is very, very strong even though you don't pick it up when you watch TV because none of the pundits are willing to even broach the idea of ending the war now," said Paul Shannon , who works for the regional office of the American Friends Service Committee and is a coordinator of the effort.

He said the Massachusetts volunteers -- who collected the signatures of about 200 registered voters in each of 36 House districts to get the issue on the ballot -- were motivated because of their disgust with the ``immorality and criminality of the war and especially the huge loss of life."

The volunteers included Melida Arredondo of Roslindale, whose 20-year-old stepson Alex Arredondo was killed in Iraq in August 2004. When her husband, Carlos, learned of his son's death, he climbed inside the Marine van that brought the news and set it and himself afire, a heart-rending act of grief that was broadcast around the world.

Melida Arredondo said yesterday her stepson, who graduated from Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton in 2002, knew that she opposed the war in Iraq and would have endorsed her campaign.

``He said he wouldn't have minded if I went to the streets," said Arredondo, who manages HIV services for a community health center in Boston.

But a spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney criticized the ballot question.

``The war on terror cannot be won with a policy of cut and run," said spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom , whose boss is considering seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2008. ``Further, to pull out troops precipitously now would lead to a humanitarian disaster in Iraq. Governor Romney believes our objective should be to bring our troops home as quickly as possible following the achievement of stability in Iraq."

Jo Comerford , the former director of the American Friends Service Committee for Western Massachusetts and a resident of Florence, said US leaders have ignored growing pleas to end the war. She hoped next month's vote will change that.

``We expect the results to be overwhelming in favor of ending the war," said Comerford, 43. ``It has to start somewhere, and why not Massachusetts?"

Massachusetts, which has 351 municipalities, is the third state to participate in the state-by-state effort, Shannon said. In March 2005, people in 52 of Vermont's 246 cities and towns approved a similar measure at town meetings. Twenty-four of 32 communities voting in Wisconsin approved such referenda in April.

As in Wisconsin, the ballot question in Massachusetts will be considered House district by House district. Because some districts cover only parts of communities, some residents in a municipality will get to vote on the question while others won't. In Boston, the question will be on ballots in South Boston as well as parts of Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, and Roslindale, organizers said.

The other groups leading the ``Home from Iraq Now" ballot initiative are United for Justice with Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and the Boston chapter of Veterans for Peace, according to Shannon's office.

Several of the antiwar organizers have invoked the legacy of grass-roots campaigns against the Vietnam War to justify their effort.

Vietnam veteran Joe Kebartas , who collected signatures in South Boston for the ballot question, said in a statement, ``As I have learned from my personal experience in Vietnam in 1971-72, the best way to support the troops during a war based on lies is to bring them home."

But fellow Vietnam veteran Paul Eagan , 54, a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6536 in South Boston, has no plans to support the referendum.

``I think it would be devastating to pull out right away," he said. ``We promised them democracy. We'd be leaving them high and dry if we left right away. It's not the right thing to do."