Alan Greenblatt is a GOVERNING correspondent.
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How a Beery Joke Got Out of Hand
A group of San Francisco residents has been collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would rename the city's main sewage treatment facility after President Bush, the SF Chronicle reports, "which supporters say, would be a 'fitting monument to this president's work.'"
It sounds like a harmless joke, or maybe a college civics lesson gone awry. But the handful of friends who dreamed this up over beers one night say they have already collected 8,500 signatures in support of the plan - 1,300 more than the minimum needed to put the question to city voters in November. When they submit the signatures in July, election workers will have to verify that at least 7,168 are from registered city voters for the measure to qualify for the ballot.
"It's a very simple yes or no question, and there's no real fiscal impact- just the cost of relettering the sign in front of the plant," said organizer Brian McConnell. "This is the way the democratic process is supposed to work, even though it's a silly idea in some people's eyes."
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