Californians to vote on plan to split state into three

Golden State set to vote on proposal that
would create northern and southern territories

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California’s large size, high population and extreme political
and economic diversity make governing the state unwieldy – or even,
according to proponents of the three-state solution,
impossible.

Peggy Grande, spokeswoman for campaign group Citizens for Cal 3,
said that California’s state government was
“overmatched, overstretched and overwrought” in the face of
pressing issues including “failing education, crumbling
infrastructure [and] sky-high taxes”.

Under Draper’s vision, Northern California would
consist of 40 counties, including many rural, conservative-leaning
counties whose voters have long complained that their voices are
drowned out by the densely populated liberal cities along the
coast.

Southern California takes over a similar-sized
swathe of the south, including well-to-do Orange County and San
Diego.

The new, downsized “California” would consist of
the six counties around Los Angeles. Despite its far smaller size,
it would boast a population roughly similar to the North and
South.

However, “critics have slammed the partition
effort as a distraction and say that breaking up the state would
cost billions of tax dollars,” says CNN.

Campaigners have been trying to break up
California almost since it was admitted to the Union in
1850.

The state’s 168-year history has seen ”200 attempts to
either reconfigure its boundaries, split it into pieces or even
have the state secede and become an independent country”, says the
Los Angeles Times.

“The last three-state proposal, crafted by a
Butte County legislator, failed in the state Capitol in
1993.”

If the plan were to come to fruition – which, at
present, appears extremely unlikely – it would be the first split
of a US state since West Virginia seceded from Virginia during the
American Civil War in 1863.