Cal 3 Has the Votes to Appear on November’s Ballot

Map of the Cal3 (or Three Californias) proposal by Tim Draper (2017). Map courtesy of Wikipedia.

The initiative to divide the state of California into three separate states, Cal 3, received over 450,000 valid signatures, more than enough to appear on this November’s ballot in search of approval from California voters.

Yes, you read that correctly. The voters in California will decide whether they want California to add two new entities within its borders, to be known as Northern California and Southern California. Just plain California will be the area that includes all the coastal counties from Los Angeles to Monterrey.

The money behind the initiative comes from Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper. He was an early backer of Tesla and Skype and believes three Californias are better than one.

It is unclear if this initiative is an amendment to California’s constitution or a revision. If its considered a “small change” than it will not need approval from the state legislature before it heads to Congress for approval. However, if it is indeed a revision, which is a big change, then it will need to be enacted first by the California state legislature before heading to Washington, D.C.

Draper has tried twice before to split up his home state but failed. This time around he has dedicated $1.2 million of his own funds to push for Citizens for Cal 3. He probably spent an additional million dollars to get the signatures he needed to see the initiative on the ballot.

Polls seem to show that Cal 3 wont pass, with only 17% of Californians saying they would vote for the initiative in November. Since the poll only asked 900 voters, it could be be misleading.

The proposal would give the three new states 6 senators together in place of the two they have now. The number of congressmen would be determined by the population of each newly created state. Even if the proposal were to pass, the initiative will still have many obstacles in its way before it could be implemented. Cal 3 is most likely a bad case of “California Dreaming” for some of the residents of the Golden State.

About James Cannon

James Cannon is an experienced hedge fund analyst. He has served on the advisory boards for various different Fortune 500 companies as well as serving as an adjunct professor of finance. James Cannon has written for a variety of Financial Magazines both on and off line. Contact James at james[at]businessdistrict.com