Californians are seeking to secede from the United States.
California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla, on Thursday gave the green light for the proposed initiative to start collecting signatures.
If enough signatures are collected, “Calexit” could be on the ballot in 2018.
If the “yes” have their way at the referendum, provisions in the California Constitution which stipulate that the state is an “inseparable part of the U.S” and that the U.S. Constitution is the “supreme law of the land” will automatically be repealed
This would mean California could govern itself.
Yes California, the campaigners for the proposal, have argued the state is culturally out of step with the rest of the U.S.
With 38.8million people, California is the most populous state in the U.S and the third most extensive at 433,970 square kilometers.
It is the state with the most electoral college votes with 55.
“California loses [by] being a part of America culturally and financially,” Marcus Ruiz Evans, one of the group’s founders told the Los Angeles Times.
“It could be a nation all its own, everybody knows that. The only question is if they want to break off.”
61.5 per cent of Californians voted for Hillary Clinton and 31.5 per cent did for Donald Trump.
To qualify for the ballot, Yes California has to collect 585,407 valid signatures from registered voters over the next 180 days.
