Tech Investor Says Plan To Split California Headed For 2016 Ballot

Image via Six Californias Initiative
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The wealthy Silicon Valley investor who wants to split California into six separate states says he’s gathered enough signatures to put the effort to the ballot in 2016.

Venture capitalist Timothy Draper’s Six Californias initiative tweeted Monday that he planned to file the signatures Tuesday in Sacramento.

A spokesman for the campaign, Roger Salazar, told Reuters that that the initiative had gathered more than the roughly 808,000 signatures needed to place it on the November 2016 ballot.

“It’s important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians,” Salazar told Reuters. “The idea … is to create six states with responsive local governments – states that are more representative and accountable to their constituents.”

Draper has invested $750,000 of his own money in the initiative, which would partition Silicon Valley off from the rest of the state. A Field Poll conducted in February found that 59 percent of residents opposed Draper’s plan, however, and even if voters were to approve the measure it would still require the approval of the U.S. Congress.

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