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Plan To Split California Into Three States Makes It On The Ballot

Joseph Lafave Contributor
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California may be divided up into three separate states thanks to a new proposal to split the state into thirds. The measure, officially named the Division Of California Into Three States Initiative Statute (#1814), qualified for the November election on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

If voters favor the proposal, the process of dividing up the state will commence, which ultimately depends on current state legislators to vote in favor of it, and essentially themselves out of jobs. If successful, this will be the first time since 1863 and the creation of West Virginia that a state has divided itself. The smallest of the new states will run along the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles to Monterey, with the remaining two occupying the Northern and Southern portions of the state.

“Three states will get us better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes,” said Tim Draper, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and state-splitting advocate who is the proponent of the ballot measure, in an email to The Los Angeles Times in 2017. “States will be more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens.”

Draper also attempted to get similar proposals on the ballot in both 2012 and 2014. His 2018 attempt was finally able to reach enough signatures – 402,468 in all – and will be certified by the California Secretary of State on June 28, 2018, according to the California Division of Elections.