Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle will likely order a special election to fill five offices in the town of Monticello, Wis., after the State Elections Board discovered the town did not hold a spring election.
This is the first time in any Wisconsin election official's memory that a local government failed to hold an election as required by law, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Monticello, a town on the Illinois border with approximately 150 people, did not print ballots. Candidates get on ballots at a caucus, but the only people to show up at the caucus were the incumbents running for re-election, the Journal Sentinel said.
Since the terms of the candidates technically expired on April 11, Doyle is expected to require a special election.
One-hundred fifteen cardinals convened Monday to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II. Their first session ended at dusk after an inconclusive first ballot.
In a centuries-old ritual wrapped in solemn pageantry, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led an afternoon procession into the Sistine Chapel. Then, after an unprecedented live telecast of their opening ceremony, the red-robed cardinals locked themselves in the chapel to begin their conclave-the secret sessions to choose the 265th pope.
Two-and-a-half hours later, black smoke poured from the chapel's chimney, signaling to an expectant throng of thousands in St. Peter's Square that no candidate had achieved the 77 votes required for election. The cardinals adjourned until Tuesday.
Some hunters may have prematurely acted upon a recent vote that approved the hunting of feral cats in Wisconsin. Early last week, the Conservation Congress, an advising body to the Department of National Resources, held statewide elections for the public to voice its opening on feral cat hunting.
That same day, the bodies of four cats were found near a cemetery in Sheboygan, Wis. One of cats was a house cat wearing a collar, which would still be illegal to hunt under the proposal.
While the vote of the Conservation Congress ultimately passed the proposal with approximately 57 percent approval, feral cats are still a protected species. To legally classify feral cats as a non-protected species eligible for hunting, the proposal needs approval by the Natural Resources Board, state Legislature and Gov. Jim Doyle. Doyle has said he would veto the proposition.
