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posted by mrpg on Friday April 13 2018, @11:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the divide-et-impera dept.

Third time's the charm:

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.

Related:
Secessionists Formally Launch Quest for California's Independence
California Secession Leader has Russian Ties
Calexit: the "Bad Boys of Brexit" Throw Their Weight Behind Move to Split State


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by ilPapa on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:30AM (9 children)

    by ilPapa (2366) on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:30AM (#666686) Journal

    This Draper guy who's been pushing this for the past 15 years is just another right-wing huckster. He raises money and pushes this nonsense every election season. There is no appetite for dividing California.

    If you go to the guy's website, it reads like one of those Microsoft sample websites with Latin place-holder text. Draper has his little grift going and he knows it won't happen, but grifters gotta grift.

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  • (Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:37AM (1 child)

    by wisnoskij (5149) <jonathonwisnoskiNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:37AM (#666692)

    > There is no appetite for dividing California.
    > Their have been over 200 serious proposals to divide.
    > 90% of the current counties in California are ruled over by a governor they voted against.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by ilPapa on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:36AM

      by ilPapa (2366) on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:36AM (#666727) Journal

      90% of the current counties in California are ruled over by a governor they voted against.

      90% of current counties in California are practically empty.

      Jerry Brown has a 65% approval rating in California. If Trump had numbers like that, he'd be putting himself on the $100 bill.

      Jerry Brown is more popular in California than Ronald Reagan ever was.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:45AM (5 children)

    by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:45AM (#666698) Journal

    It looks like there was enough appetite to get the required signatures, and then some.

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    • (Score: 4, Informative) by ilPapa on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:28AM (3 children)

      by ilPapa (2366) on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:28AM (#666718) Journal

      It looks like there was enough appetite to get the required signatures, and then some.

      There are 40 million Californians. He claims to have 600,000 signatures.

      You do the math. Does that indicate enough appetite for this proposition to pass? Especially in a year where people from coast to coast are seemingly saying (with their votes) that they've had just about enough of these right-wing jackoffs. I don't think so. Not that I'm opposed to there being now 4 Democratic senators from California, but even people I know in Fresno and Bakersfield don't want this. The last thing they need is to go from living in the most prosperous state in the US to one of the poorest, which is what they'd be.

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      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:14AM (2 children)

        by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:14AM (#666739) Journal

        How many miilions of signatures do they need to collect for you to be impressed? There will always be an order of magnitude less signatures than votes.

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        • (Score: 2) by ilPapa on Saturday April 14 2018, @05:57AM

          by ilPapa (2366) on Saturday April 14 2018, @05:57AM (#666817) Journal

          How many miilions of signatures do they need to collect for you to be impressed?

          They've gotten enough signatures to get on the ballot before. And the proposition was crushed.

          Signing a petition is one thing, but voting is another.

          As I said, Californians do not have any appetite to actually split up the state. It's just a scam.

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        • (Score: 2) by ilPapa on Sunday April 15 2018, @05:17AM

          by ilPapa (2366) on Sunday April 15 2018, @05:17AM (#667164) Journal

          By the way, the last time Draper pulled this grift, he got something like 1.5 million signatures. Of course, most of them were bogus and fell off in the challenge, but the fact that he's only presenting 600k this time around is an indication of just how badly his hustle is failing.

          Oh, and the last time, his master plan was to divide California into SIX states.

          As I've said, grifters gonna grift.

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          You are still welcome on my lawn.
    • (Score: 2) by chromas on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:58AM

      by chromas (34) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:58AM (#666757) Journal

      Russian haxx!

  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:27AM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:27AM (#666741) Homepage Journal

    Believe me, Tim is no dummy. He's very smart. You've heard of Hotmail. Maybe you've heard of Skype? Those were him. He didn't start them, he made them successful. Because he invented Viral Marketing. He's a HUGE Venture Capitalist. He founded the Draper University of Heroes. And he won the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s Entrepreneur for the World award!!!!