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 Citizen Action Led Health Care Referendums Win in Landslide!
Citizen Action mounted a state-wide campaign to place health care advisory referendums on the ballot in cities and counties across the state. In this large scale grassroots campaign over 32,000 Wisconsin voters signed referendum petitions.
Did the referenda pass in your city or county? Can you write a short letter to the editor explaining why you supported it? Click here to find your local paper.
As a result, 22 Wisconsin cities and counties had health care advisory referendums on the ballot Tuesday November 4th. The referendums won in a land slide, garnering 74% of the vote and over 413,000 total votes state-wide. The referendums ran far ahead of everthing else on the ballot, actually running 18 points ahead of Barack Obama!
In some cities local educators used their summer vacations to gather signatures and in others local residents collected signatures through their church networks. Kathleen Slamka, who gathered signatures with her daughter at the Oak Creek public concert series, told the Shepherd Express: “I’ve collected a lot of signatures in the past, and these were by far the easiest signatures to get. The hard part was hearing people’s stories. Everyone knows someone who doesn’t have health insurance, and a lot of times it’s their kids or grandkids.”
Because of these efforts all across the state, 22 Wisconsin cities and counties had health care advisory referendums on the ballot November 4th. The referendums won in a landslide, with over 413,000 yes votes. The city and county vote totals ranged from 66% to 85% for the referendum, with a state-wide average of 74% voting yes. The referendums were overwhelmingly popular, running ahead of everything else on the ballot, and even running 18 points ahead of Barack Obama! The landslide vote for the referendum was state-wide news (see front page "Citizen Action in the News" section and media archives section of website). The vote sends a powerful message to the politicians in Madison that the people are tired of the Legislature’s failure to lead on the deepening health care crisis.
The referendums garnered state-wide attention for health care reform, resulting in over 140 media stories so far. As a result, health care reform is near the top of the Legislative agenda. The referendums forced candidates and newly elected legislators to go beyond their standard stump speeches and commit to enacting bold health care reform by the end of next year that guarantees high quality coverage and controls skyrocketing costs.
Before the election, key lawmakers predicted the referendums would influence the Legislature. As Senator Pat Kreitlow (D-Chippewa Falls) told the Eau Claire Leader Telegram: "I think if these referendums pass in some communities that will send a powerful message that the public is tired of politicians hashing this over back and forth, rather than providing some form of relief." The landslide vote on November 4th made Senator Kreitlow's prediction come true.
Local Health Care Referendum Vote Percentages
- Appleton--73% yes
- Altoona--72% yes
- Barron County--77% yes
- Black River Falls--79% yes
- Dane County--73% yes
- Douglas County--81% yes
- Eau Claire--74% yes
- Hudson--73% yes
- Green Bay--73% yes
- La Crosse County--75% yes
- Menasha--85% yes
- Menomonie--80% yes
- Mondovi--76% yes
- New Richmond--79% yes
- Oak Creek--66% yes
- Oshkosh--78% yes
- Polk County--66% yes
- River Falls--83% yes
- South Milwaukee--72% yes
- Tomah--83% yes
- Viroqua--66% yes
- Washburn County--79% yes
- State Wide Total--74% yes
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