The question is, should state Rep. Michael Costello, D-Newburyport, be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling for President George Bush and Congress to immediately end the war in Iraq and start bringing troops home?

The three communities will be among 139 cities and towns across the state that have the question, named Question 4, on the ballot. The question will be on the backside of the ballot.

The other three questions relate to selling alcohol in food stores and supermarkets, fusion voting and unionizing daycare workers.

John Proctor of Amesbury, one of the volunteers who spearheaded the local effort to get the fourth question, called Costello's vote "a symbolic act," but said it's a step toward building a national movement against the war.

"I'm under no allusion that the present administration will listen to it," Proctor said. "I think it's very important that we continue to build a movement even after the vote."

Costello said he supports the resolution in principle and would likely agree to the measure if it includes language that the troops are brought home safely and there is a solid exit strategy in place.

"I was opposed to going into Iraq," Costello said, saying he wanted the country's focus to stay on Afghanistan. "Frankly I don't really need a resolution to voice my opinion which I've already voiced several times. Clearly I don't think we should be there."

The "Home from Iraq Now" ballot question is part of a nationwide effort, organized locally by the American Friends Service Committee, United for Justice with Peace, Military Families Speak Out and the Boston chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Diana Philip of Newburyport is the local organizer of the initiative and worked with several volunteers last spring to gather the necessary 220 signatures to put the resolution on the ballot for Costello's district. Philip learned of the nationwide effort through an e-mail asking for volunteers to organize a campaign in their own community.

"I just knew it was a subject that interested me very much," Philip said. "It was a matter of 'What can I do?' I think this is a terrible war. I think we were misled entirely."

Volunteers canvassed the three communities, distributing information and gathering signatures in the downtowns, and outside supermarkets, shops and post offices. The group collected about 260 signatures that needed to be certified as belonging to registered voters.

Proctor said the war has damaged the country's global standing and caused the United States to be hated.

"We're viewed as bullies now," he said.

The country has never been given an honest answer for why the war was started, Philip said.

"I think most people are really opposed to the war," Proctor said, calling it "illegal and immoral." The war costs billions of dollars each week that could be used for other needs, he said.

Costello said he expects that an "overwhelming majority" of his district will support the resolution. "I think it will give the voters of my district the opportunity to weigh in on the war in a way that others won't have," he said.

The question is nonbinding, but Proctor and Philip said it gives citizens a chance to express their view. Philip said she'll be campaigning at the polls Tuesday, "just to let people know that they have the option of making their voices heard."

If the question is passed, Massachusetts will join Wisconsin and Vermont where voters also approved the measure.

This isn't the first time Costello was ordered by his constituents to vote a certain way on a controversial topic. In 2002, nearly 63 percent of voters in five Merrimack Valley communities voted in favor a question that ordered Costello to vote against giving another term to House Speaker Thomas Finneran.

At the time the question was passed, Costello balked, saying he might obey the vote if a "qualified candidate" challenged Finneran. Ultimately, no candidate stepped forward, and Costello voted in favor of Finneran.