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A California technology billionaire said on Thursday that his longtime and perhaps quixotic effort to partition the Golden State into multiple new states could soon be put before voters.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper said he had gathered about 600,000 signatures on a petition to put his proposal to divide California on the November ballot, more than the 366,000 needed to qualify. It is his third attempt to get voters to weigh in on his call to break up the most populous U.S. state.
Draper, who in 2014 and 2016 failed in his efforts to win approval for a ballot initiative to divide the state into six parts, said in a news release Thursday that he planned to file the signatures with election officials next week.
[...] To go into effect, California would first have to certify the signatures that Draper has gathered, and then voters in November would need to pass the measure. After that, the U.S. Congress would have to approve it.
Also at The Mercury News and SFGate.
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @11:57PM (17 children)
There is no way this is possible. California overall trends substantially democratic, so the outcome would be something like "create 2 Democratic leaning states, and 1 Republican leaning state." Would any Republican in the US Senate let that happen?
Alternatively, the outcome would be something like "create 2 Republican leaning states, and 1 Democratic leaning state." Would any Democrat in the US Senate let that happen?
This sounds like a "Texas Independence" type thing... a very Quixotic quest which defies even a superficial reality check. (On the other hand, the same could have been said for a certain recent presidential election.)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:13AM (3 children)
Actually what Ethanol-Fueled suggested does make the most likely solution to avoid the deadlock you suggest.
Take a look at this: http://abc30.com/politics/red-vs-blue-california-election/398766/ [abc30.com] The people are already split that way.
Both parts would scream gerrymandering, but they would balance each other out, and nullify that argument.
There is no north vs south split that makes sense, either into two states or three, because of San Francisco and LA would dominate what ever half they were in.
Better to leave those two together (they deserve each other).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:38AM
Imperial county being blue comes as no surprise (we at one time and maybe still now boasted 25% unemployment, the highest rate of teen pregnancy, and one of the most polluted waterways of North America), but Riverside? Come on, you're all White retired military living in McMansions and blowing your VA checks at the local bar all day every day.
Who in Riverside is letting all the Zetas and Sinaloas vote?
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 14 2018, @03:15AM (1 child)
LA is going to be its own state. That's the one they have penciled in as "California." I would call it Los Angeles. The State of Los Angeles. That one will start out blue. Not great for me, personally. Because of Trump National Los Angeles. But maybe, probably, we can turn it red. By moving very strongly against the illegals there.
Southern California is going to have San Diego, Riverside, Fresno and Orange County. A beautiful red state.
Northern California, that one will have San Francisco. So it'll be another blue state, right? WRONG! Because it's going to have 39 other counties. And so many of those other counties are very red. They supported me very strongly in 2016. Even with all the dirty tricks the California Dems pulled in that election.
This is coming up for a vote in November. Let's hope it passes. Let's do everything we can. So a Republican Congress gets to vote on it. And I'll get to sign it. I love signing documents! And I'll be waiting, pen in hand. Pen in hand, folks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @08:12AM
You're not the first to think of that.
One guy's equal-population senatorial map. [archive.li]
Southern California is going to have [...] Fresno
You're really lousy at geography.
...and the linked map suggests The State of Orange (County).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:23AM (1 child)
I don't know, maybe because they don't have a majority after the next senate election?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 14 2018, @03:35AM
Keep dreaming, I love our beautiful dreamers. Even the Australian ones.
If your HORRIBLE dream -- for Americans it's a nightmare -- comes true, we can still have Three Californias. Because the election for the Senate and the election for Three Californias are the same election. First Tuesday in November. But we keep all our Senators & Representatives -- except the ones who quit or die -- until January 20. The VERY CROOKED California government gives itself 30 days to certify the results of elections. So even if California drags its heels, we have more than a month to bring it to Congress. To our terrific Republican Congress. And maybe Congress can vote on it before it's certified or even before the election! Our lawyers are gonna look into all the legal. Believe me, we have some tremendous lawyers. The most loyal & smartest.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:30AM (9 children)
Not that I disagree with any of your points, but how can it not happen? 90% of California voted Trump. Mile after mile, basically every single country in california feels neglected by their state leadership. How is any government, or political party going to prevent millions of people over hundreds of thousands of square miles from seeking representation?
Politics and political parties are powerful in the States, but are they really more powerful than all the people combined?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:41AM (8 children)
> 90% of California voted Trump.
*citation needed*
By square mileage ?
Because two thirds of the human beings who qualify and bothered to show up voted D. I'm pretty sure that's what we count.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:14AM (3 children)
The problem is that tolerance and understanding is really 1-sided.
The conservative rural people (deplorables) are well aware of the festering cities. This is where they must go for serious airports, advanced medical treatment, large universities, and so on. City life, and especially city values, are featured in most media.
The liberal city people (degenerates) are mostly ignorant of rural life. A small portion of them venture out for stuff like skiing, where they mostly encounter other liberal city people like themselves. Whenever rural life supposedly makes it into the media, it is a caricature based on the prejudices of the liberal city people. It's stuff like "squeal like a pig" in Deliverance, which is actually far more likely in LA.
So we have a bunch of liberal city people making laws that severely affect the people they despise. The city folk literally don't give a shit how much the rural folk are suffering.
I'm sure it seems fine when you are on the winning side. To understand better, picture people like Steve Bannon and Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin (and of course Donald Trump) in every seat of power in your state. No, that isn't enough. They would leave you the option to NOT carry a gun, the option to bake cakes for gay couples, and the option to use a public school. Make it more extreme, taking all that away, and you'll get the idea.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:28AM
As a rural liberal, I see this divide pretty clearly although to be fair, there is enough shade thrown in both directions to keep Mordor dark for ages, but the core of what you say is true. City-folk can't really comprehend the needs of rural areas, and rural areas can't really comprehend the issues in the cities. It might be for the best to split CA into a number of states (an even number though, designed so that neither side gains some advantage through national gerrymandering).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:30AM (1 child)
I want to believe you're trying to be informative. Yet, you've gone so far in your caricature that you negate your point.
It turns out, bear with me on this, that most people, on both sides - fine people on both sides -, do not have an extreme opinion on most of those matters that politicians and media constantly drum up in order to divide us.
It also turns out, quite amazingly, that most people setting up rules one way or another, at all levels, do understand that there are people with different opinions, or adversely affected in their habits, by the consequences of the aforementioned rules.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @06:28PM
You are ruining their circle-jerk, what kind if minster are you? Can't you let this strange fusion of politics and sexual repression at least get off before you ruin the mood?
(Score: 2, Disagree) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 14 2018, @03:40AM (3 children)
In California they count human beings. They let millions of illegals vote. And that's why I lost in California. In the other states, they count CITIZENS. And I won OVERWHELMINGLY there. If they counted citizens in California, I would have won there. Overwhelmingly!!!!
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday April 14 2018, @07:58PM (2 children)
There has yet to be any proof that illegals voted, much less in any great numbers. Get a grip Trumpelstiltskin. I am a part time Californian and yes there are a lot of immigrants, undoubtedly many are illegal but the hype spread by the administration and their tame media is based on hugely manipulated numbers, and the immigrants generally work hard and keep their heads down. If the Feds would get THEIR heads out of their collective asses and do even the most basic job at the border things would get better fast.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @08:18PM (1 child)
Are you expecting millions of people to line up in front of you, each swearing an oath that they committed this felony, and each presenting you with a notarized admission, and each providing unedited video of them casting the vote?
We've caught and convicted multiple people. We know that California gives driver licenses to illegal aliens, and we know that California automatically registers people with driver licenses. Some of the more honest non-citizens (for example, a Chinese student on a student visa) have reported getting automatically registered. We know that there were counties with more voters than people who should be eligible to vote.
Also, it isn't just about them voting. California has several extra people in the US House of Representatives due to illegal aliens. They get counted in the census you see, and that adjusts the representation. This wrongly diminishes the influence of legitimate Americans in other states.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 14 2018, @09:47PM
We're going to put a question back on the Census, that we used to have when America was great (1950). Are you a United States citizen? Very simple. Then we can do the House of Reps & Electoral College according to HOW MANY CITIZENS. Not human beings!
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Saturday April 14 2018, @10:31AM
I'm not convinced. Turning one democratic state into two democratic states and one republican state would not increase the size of a democratic majority in the senate or reduce the size of a republican one. If you have a 40/60 split in the current situation then it would become a 41/61 split afterwards. Whichever party had a majority would still have a majority, but it would increase the chance of one of the 3 Californias becoming a swing state and give both parties a chance to turn that into a 21 or 19-seat majority.
sudo mod me up