Proponents of splitting California into 6 states are attempting to get on the 2016 ballot


This weekend, a group that wants to see California split into six separate states hit the streets in an attempt to gather enough signatures to make it on the 2016 ballot. The Six Californias organization needs to get 808,000 valid signatures by July 18.
The idea for Six Californias came from a venture capitalist named Timothy Draper, the Los Angeles Times reports. He has spent $2 million on the proposal, which he believes will make it easier for businesses to thrive and for the governments of each state to run smoothly. "California has become the worst-managed state in the country," he said earlier this year. "It just is too big and too ungovernable."
Draper said he has support from people living in every one of the proposed states (including northern California near the Oregon border, which would become Jefferson, and San Diego, which would morph into South California), but experts say the effort is extremely unlikely to succeed. It has done the near-impossible, though: Both Democrats and Republicans alike have derided the plan.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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