Brattleboro VT Votes on Indicting Bush and Cheney Tomorrow

[Also, listen to Vermont Public Radio interview of Dan Dewalt.]

Absentee voters report trouble finding Bush indictment article
By Susan Smallheer, Rutland Herald

BRATTLEBORO -— Brattleboro has a chance to set an example for the rest of the country Tuesday, when voters go to the town meeting polls to decide whether they favor indicting President Bush for violating his oath of office, organizers of the Brattleboro Initiative said Sunday.

But with voter turnout expected to be high Tuesday for Vermont's presidential primary, with an abundance of new, young voters supporting the candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama, organizers are optimistic the maverick article will gain widespread support.

But there's one snafu. The article calling for Bush's indictment is on the back of the paper ballot, and many people who have already cast absentee votes have reported that the issue wasn't on the ballot after all.

Organizer Kurt Daims, the author of the indictment article, said his wife came home with her absentee ballot and couldn't find the article. It was on the back side of the ballot, with all the elective offices on the front of the ballot.

Daims urged the crowd to spread the word that the ballot must be turned over.

Select Board member Rich Garrant said that under ordinary circumstances, and the expected turnout in Obama's favor, he would be predicting success for the indictment article.

But he said more than 600 people have already cast absentee ballots, and he worried that a large percentage of voters might have missed the indictment article.

Sunday organizers held an informational forum about the article, with speakers from Virginia, Vermont and Maine answering people's questions and explaining the reasons behind it.

While organizers concede the vote is essentially symbolic, they said it is an important, common law act which would demonstrate that people are disgusted with the policies of Bush and the War in Iraq.

David Swanson, a former press secretary to the presidential campaign of Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, said he was thrilled to come to Vermont from Virginia to support the ballot item.

"A lot of cops will be very jealous of the police force in Brattleboro," said Swanson, referring to the indictment, which would theoretically give Brattleboro police the right to arrest Bush once he leaves office and if he ever steps foot in this southeastern Vermont town.

Vermont is one state Bush hasn't visited during his presidency.

Swanson, the founder of an anti-Bush and anti-Cheney Web site, called the president and vice president "the two biggest criminals of our age."

Swanson pointed out the Declaration of Independence had no force of law when the American colonies adopted it in 1776. Daims, the initiative's author, said he was inspired by the Declaration of Independence when writing it.

Swanson and others said they considered that Bush was guilty of crimes against humanity, for invading Iraq, approving illegal wiretaps, torturing prisoners of war, and denying people basic human rights.

He said he hoped that Brattleboro might inspire U.S. Congress, which so far has resisted any movement toward impeaching Bush and Cheney.

"Congress has no better friend than the people of Brattleboro, Vt.," he said.

Laurie Dobson, a Kennebunkport, Maine, woman who is running as an independent against U.S. Senate Susan Collins, R-Maine, told the gathering she had asked town officials in her hometown to adopt an ordinance based on the Brattleboro Initiative.

"I want to give the president the proverbial boot out of town," said Dobson. "They broke international laws and treaties by invading Iraq," she said.

"I want him fired and make him pay for his crimes against humanity," she said.

Brattleboro voters go to the polls on Tuesday to vote on elections and the indictment article. Voting is from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Brattleboro Union High School.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.