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Proposed 'Six Californias' ballot measure fails to qualify for 2016 ballot
An image from the Six Californias website shows the proposed borders of its plan to slice the state into areas that the plan's backers say would be more manageable.
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The proposed ballot measure that would have divided California into six different states has failed to qualify for the November 2016 ballot, the Sacramento Bee reports, not receiving enough valid signatures to make the grade.
The campaign turned in 1.14 million signatures in July, but random sampling finished Friday ruled that only 752,685 of the signatures were valid, the Bee reports, putting the measure about 15,000 signatures below what's needed to trigger a full count and qualify for the ballot.
The plan would have divided California into Jefferson in the northernmost portion, Northern California below that, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California and finally Southern California. The initiative was backed by tech industry investor Timothy Draper, and would have required the approval of California's Legislature and the U.S. Congress.
Draper had argued that dividing the state up would have made areas that were more governable, telling Marketplace that California was "a failed state."
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