SANTA CRUZ — City residents unhappy with the way President George W. Bush is leading the country may have the opportunity to vote for his impeachment in November.

Such a vote, which a group of community activists is seeking to put on the Santa Cruz ballot Nov. 7, would do nothing to actually remove the president from office. Instead, supporters say it would be something more than an opinion poll that would send a message to Washington, D.C.

"He's has broken so many laws, and he doesn't seem to take the laws seriously," said Sherry Conable, a member of Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, one of the local groups organizing the ballot initiative. "He's spied on American people without authorization; he's ignored the Geneva Conventions and the outting of Valerie Plame — all of these things are illegal."

Conable and others are asking the City Council to put a measure on the November ballot that calls for Congress to begin an immediate investigation into alleged impeachable offenses by the president.

Similar measures are already slated for ballots in Berkeley and communities in Wisconsin and Vermont.

At least one Santa Cruz council member, Tim Fitzmaurice, supports the idea, and is working on a formal proposal for the council to consider at its meeting July 25. Support from four of the seven council members is required to get the initiative on the ballot.

"Let me count the ways," Fitzmaurice said as reasons for Bush's impeachment. "At the top of my list is the war and the errors and deceptions in the way the war was promoted.

"A pre-emptive war is something I find reprehensible."

Supporters predict a Bush impeachment question in the general election would be an easy win in this left-leaning city of 55,000 residents.