Californians to Vote on Whether to Split Up Into Three States

Breaking up is hard to do. But Californians will be given the choice to do exactly that after a radical proposal to split into three states gained enough support to appear on November’s general-election ballot. Voters will decide whether to separate into three states: California, Northern California and Southern California. If voters back the proposal, it will then be subject to approval by Congress. The idea was put forward by billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper, who calls it “Cal 3,” and it received more than 402,468 valid signatures, making it eligible for the ballot. “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 statement. Under the proposal, each new state would be home to between 12.3 million to 13.9 million people.