If Voters Can't Split California Up, How About Calexit?

CALIFORNIA -- There's a new proposal on the table for California voters: Split the state into an "autonomous Native American nation." The campaign, dubbed Calexit, comes after an effort to split the Golden State into three regions was rejected by the state Supreme Court.

Organizers for the Calexit campaign want to make at least half of California into an autonomous nation.

“Today we are announcing the expansion of the Calexit plan to be even bigger and more ambitious than ever before,” Louis Marinelli, a Calexit co-founder, wrote in a blog Wednesday. “The new Calexit plan I am pleased to present today will not only bring about the first successful, peaceful, and legal secession of an American state from the United States but starting today the new Calexit plan now includes the establishment of the first-ever autonomous Native American nation in North America.”

The Los Angeles Times reported the Calexit plan is one of hundreds that have been proposed to split up California since 1849.

The Times wrote, "The idea of secession isn’t terribly popular with voters, according to two polls released in January 2017. About 32% of voters contacted in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll supported peaceful withdrawal from the union. A Stanford University poll in 2017 found that only about 27% of the survey’s respondents backed California secession."

The group has until October to collect enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

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