Direct Legislation Impeachment
Submitted by danielifearn on Tue, 2006-08-22 14:31. IFPJ
Impeachment Petition Drives in Pittsville and WI Rapids,
Impeachment Town Meeting Wednesday Night WI Rapids
August 7, 2006
For Immediate Release: Wood Co. Coalition for Peace & Justice and Veterans for Peace, Chapter 25.
Pittsville, WI will likely be the first city in Wisconsin with an impeachment resolution on the ballot in November. Later this week Robert Hoch, impeachment petition drive leader, will turn in about 55 signatures of Pittsville residents to the city clerk starting the formal impeachment investigation referendum process. The Pittsville resolution states "Resolved: The U.S. House of Representatives should start an impeachment investigation against President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney now." Forty-six valid signatures have to be turned in to place the resolution on the ballot. Pittsville is a small central Wisconsin city of 866 people about 12 miles south of Marshfield in Wood County.
Hoch, who began collecting signatures about two weeks ago, said, “I was surprised at how many people wanted to sign the petition as I went door to door. They’d say things like I can’t stand the man, or I’m fed up or I want to do something about the situation. They want to see an impeachment investigation. Some would wish me good luck. The responses were very surprising to me.” Hoch explained his personal reason for conducting petitions drives. “I am sickened to watch the thousands of innocent people dying because of our overly aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East. I decided I must take personal action.”
State law requires the number of signatures to be equal to 15% of the total number of persons who voted in the governor’s race in 2002 or 15% of the 303 voters equaling 46 signatures. Hoch explained their target is a bit higher in case there are errors. Once the signed petitions are submitted to the city clerk, the clerk will check to see that they are valid and then forward the petitions to the city council which has the choice of adopting the resolution or placing the resolution on the November ballot for citizens to decide. Hoch said he would ask the council to place the resolution on the November ballot rather than simply adopt it.
The complete article is at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/13933