In the Bellmore-Merrick high school district, voters approved the budget but ousted an incumbent board member.

"When a President is on trial, the balance is very different," the counsel insisted, because voters can oust Presidents at the ballot box.

In Kansas City, Kan., voters ousted their Mayor two months after he received a heart transplant.

Party officials said they were optimistic that voters in the solidly Republican Eighth District would oust Mr. Lukens.

Asked if voters really would oust a politician who is seen as anti-reform, he replied: "It's more of a symbolic issue.

Italian voters ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last month to a large degree because he did not fix the economy.

It is true that challengers in particular would have a hard time convincing voters to oust incumbents by announcing that everything is rosy.

Last year, Polish voters ousted a centrist party and elected a coalition based on the former Communists, and the ex-Communists also won in Lithuania.

Or will the voters simply have ousted an aging and corrupt leadership, leaving Japan in the hands of their disciples?

In Marin County years ago, voters ousted a county board that had agreed to open up a vast coastal tract to builders.