[Peace-discuss] AWARE in the NEWS; Township ballot advisory referendum

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Township ballot questions look at national issues
By Mike Monson

Thursday January 31, 2008

Voters in the townships that include most of Champaign and all of  
Urbana will get an opportunity to weigh on some national issues in the  
Feb. 5 primary.

Additionally, Champaign voters also will be able to vote on whether  
they agree with the decision last year to cut funding to general  
assistance recipients in City of Champaign Township, and whether they  
think the town board should actively pursue "any and all means  
available to them" to help those residents living in extreme poverty.

The advisory questions, most of which center around the war in Iraq,  
were placed on the ballot at the annual township board meetings last  
April. At those meetings, members of the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort, a  
local activist group, and its supporters jammed the annual town board  
meetings and voted the questions on the ballot.

"The goal was to give the public the opportunity to vote on issues of  
interest to them with regard to national policy," said AWARE member  
Durl Kruse of Urbana. "Advisory referendums are a way to express that  
opinion."

One City of Champaign Township question concerns a financial crisis  
that prompted Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy a year ago to cut the  
monthly level of assistance in half, to $100 per month, for general  
assistance recipients. She was also forced to remove all able-bodied  
recipients from the general assistance rolls and just retain those who  
are unable to work due to illness or disability.

General assistance is a form of welfare for the extremely poor who are  
not receiving any other form of governmental cash assistance.

Dwindling cash reserves and property tax caps that limit growth in the  
township's property tax extension led Abernathy to make her decision.  
Township voters rejected in November 2006 a 5-cent increase in the tax  
rate, which for 2007 stood at 3.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Abernathy later appealed to the Champaign City Council, whose members  
also function as the town board, for financial assistance. But the  
council rejected the appeal to use city funds to help township clients.

Two war-related questions will appear on ballots in both townships'  
ballots.

One asks if voters should call upon their elected officials in Congress  
to limit military funding in Iraq to the level required to bring the  
troops home.

The second question calls for elected officials to work to repeal or  
amend the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The act authorized the  
president to establish military commissions to try unlawful enemy  
combatants and prevents defendants from invoking the Geneva Conventions  
as a source of rights during commission hearings.

The act allows hearsay evidence to be admitted during proceedings, so  
long as the presiding officer determines it to be reliable.

The act also specifies permissible interrogation methods and clarifies  
what actions would subject interrogators to liability under the War  
Crimes Act.

In Cunningham Township, voters will also whether their elected  
officials should "pursue all available means" to prevent war with Iran.



Ballot questions

City of Champaign Township

Proposition to restore the level of general assistance funding provided  
to the township

Shall the voters of the City of Champaign Township ask the township  
trustees to restore the level of general assistance funding by actively  
pursuing any and all means available to them in order to preserve the  
health and well-being of individuals, fathers, children, families and  
adults living in extreme poverty in our township?

Proposition to call upon Congress to repeal or amend the Military  
Commission Act

Shall the voters of City of Champaign Township call upon their elected  
representatives in Congress to do all in their power to repeal or amend  
the Military Commission Act in order to restore the U.S. Constitutional  
right of habeas corpus and to uphold the internationally recognized  
rules of law, thereby preventing the cruel and inhuman treatment and  
the arbitrary and indefinite detention for all detainees held by the  
U.S. government?

Proposition to call upon Congress to limit military funding in Iraq

Shall the voters of the City of Champaign Township call upon their  
elected representatives in Congress to pursue all available means to  
limit military funding in Iraq to only what is required to bring all  
U.S. troops home safely?


Cunningham Township

Cut funding for war and occupation of Iraq

Shall the voters call upon their elected representatives in Congress to  
pursue all available means to limit military funding in Iraq to only  
what is required to bring all U.S. troops home safely?

Detainees' rights referendum

Shall the voters call upon their elected representatives in Congress to  
do all in their power to repeal or amend the Military Commission Act in  
order to restore the U.S. constitutional right of habeas corpus and to  
uphold the internationally recognized rules of law, thereby preventing  
the cruel and inhuman treatment and the arbitrary and indefinite  
detention for all detainees held by the U.S. government?

Prevent war with Iran

Shall the voters call upon their elected representatives in Congress to  
pursue all available means to prevent war with Iran, including passing  
legislation that would explicitly prohibit the president from attacking  
Iran without Congressional authorization?
  Find this article at:
   
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2008/01/31/ 
township_ballotquestions_lookat_national 
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