California Allows Secession Ballot Initiative to Proceed

Californians may soon get the opportunity to vote to secede from the United States.

The state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, issued an official ballot measure title on Tuesday allowing CalExit supporters to start gathering the 585,000 signatures needed to place the matter before California voters in 2018, the Associated Press reported.

“The initiative [titled ‘California Autonomy From Federal Government’] would form a commission to recommend avenues for California to pursue its independence and delete part of the state constitution that says it is an inseparable part of the U.S. The measure would also instruct the governor and California congressional delegation to negotiate more autonomy for the state,” according to the AP.

This is the second attempt to get such an initiative on the 2018 ballot by a group that is known as Yes California or CalExit.

The first effort was withdrawn in April after the group’s founder, Louis Marinelli, emigrated to Russia, which prompted the group’s official spokesman, Marcus Ruiz Evans, to pull the initiative. He promised to resurrect it later, which he now has.

During an interview in January, Evans said Donald Trump’s election has greatly fueled his group’s cause, which dates back over two years.

“If California votes were taken away, Trump won the popular election,” said Evans. “So what kind of people elect a man like that? The answer: not Californians.”

“So we’re basically here to tell people that ‘I know that California officials are telling you that they’re going to protect you, but in fact in federalism, the federal government, overrules state law,” he added. “There is going to be a limit to what they can do.”

Evans told reporters the Supreme Court has already recognized the right of states to secede in Texas v. White (1869), though the justices actually held states do not have the right to secede unilaterally. Other states must accede to the move through the amendment process.

He cited issues such as climate change and illegal immigration as reasons California would be better off as its own master.

The group has 20,000 followers on Twitter and over 40,000 likes on Facebook.

Evans believes California, as the 5th largest economy in the world, will be just fine on its own.

At $2.6 trillion, the Golden State’s economy dwarfs the GDP’s of its sister states.

Its closest rival is Texas with a GDP of approximately $1.6 trillion.

California also has the largest population by far of any state with 39 million (or 12 percent of the United States), with Texas, once again, in second at 28 million, followed by Florida and New York, each with approximately 20 million.

CalExit organizers have 180 days to collect the required 585,000 signatures for the measure to appear on the ballot in 2018. (For more from the author of “California Allows Secession Ballot Initiative to Proceed” please click HERE)  http://joemiller.us/2017/07/california-allows-secession-ballot-initiative-proceed/