Initiative to break California into 3 states to go on November ballot

An initiative that would divide California into three separate states qualified Tuesday to appear on the ballot in November’s general election.

Californians will vote whether to separate into three states: California, Northern California and Southern California — subject to approval by US Congress.
The proposal by venture capitalist, Tim Draper to break up California in a campaign called “Cal 3,” received more than 402,468 valid signatures — surpassing the amount required by state law.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla will certify the initiative as qualified for the November 6th ballot on June 28.

Draper has said that partitioning California into three states would allow regional communities to make better and more sensible decisions for their citizens to address the state’s most pressing issues, including the school systems, high taxes, deteriorating infrastructure and strained government.
“The California state government isn’t too big to fail, because it is already failing its citizens in so many crucial ways,” Citizens for Cal 3 campaign spokeswoman Peggy Grande said in a Tuesday statement. “The reality is that for an overmatched, overstretched and overwrought state-government structure, it is too big to succeed. Californians deserve a better future.”

But critics have slammed the partition effort as a distraction and say that breaking up the state would cost billions of tax dollars.

Under the proposal, each state would have about 12.3 million to 13.9 million people.

f the measure is approved by voters, the governor will transfer the notice of state approval to Congress, which will vote to ratify the creation of the new three-state structure.

Constitutional lawyer and professor Jonathan Turley had told CNN that congressional approval is not impossible, but not likely to happen, as Democrats could feel they have too much to lose.

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