What was Proposition 9?

Proposition 9 would’ve asked voters whether California should separate into three states: California, Northern California and Southern California. It would’ve been subject to approval by US Congress. The initiative had gained enough signatures in June to qualify for the ballot on November 6.

Under the proposal, each state would have had about 12.3 million to 13.9 million people.

California- This would include six counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito counties.

Southern California- This would include 12 counties: San Diego, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, Mono, Madera, Inyo, Tulare, Fresno, Kings, Kern and Imperial counties.

Northern California- This would include 40 counties including the San Francisco Bay Area and the remaining counties north of Sacramento.

Who proposed it?

Timothy Draper is a venture capitalist who had previously tried to have a ballot measure approved to split California into six states in 2014. However, he failed to collect the required number of signatures for it to be placed on the 2016 ballot. There were even accusations of fraud, and that 70,000 of the signatures that had been collected did not exist. In 2018, the petition to split California into three states achieved the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot in 2018.

Why was this proposed?

Draper justified his proposal explaining, “California is the nation’s most populous state, nearly six times larger than the average population of the fifty states. However, much of the state’s population is concentrated in certain urban and coastal areas, particularly in Southern California.”

“California is the nation’s third largest state by geography, over two times larger than the average of the fifty states, with enormous and diverse economies, including agriculture, energy, technology, and entertainment.”

“As a consequence of these and other socio-economic factors, political representation of California’s diverse population and economies has rendered the state nearly ungovernable. Additionally, vast parts of California are poorly served by a representative government dominated by a large number of elected representatives from a small part of our state, both geographically and economically.”

“It is not surprising that efforts to divide the state have been · part of its history for over one hundred years. In fact, voters overwhelmingly approved the splitting of California into two states in 1859, but Congress never acted on that request due to the Civil War. The citizens of the whole state would be better served by three smaller state governments while preserving the historical boundaries of the various counties, cities, and towns.”

Why was the proposal removed from the ballot?

An environmental group, the Planning and Conservation League, challenged the measure in the California Supreme Court, arguing it posed a “revision” of the state constitution – as opposed to an amendment – that is too sweeping to be legally subjected to the direct consent of the voters.

The ruling from the court sided with the opponents to keep the proposal off the November 2018 ballot paper, but their reasoning was not because the proposal is not appropriate – it is to give justices more time to review and decide the merits of the case. This means that the proposition may appear on a future ballot. Supporters have criticised the decision, labelling it an unnecessary delay. Draper himself complained that “democracies don’t work this way”. Whilst opponents have welcomed the decision, they reiterate that any partition plan would be chaotic and a costly waste of time and resources.

If the proposition appears on the ballot and is approved by voters, what would happen?

If voters approved Draper’s proposition, this would not mean that California would be divided into three states. Rather, the Governor of California would need the US Congress to approve this, under the provisions in the Constitution, and this piece of legislation would also require the president’s signature. Some political commentators believe that Congress would be highly unlikely to approve this, and that there would be questions raised over how seriously voters will have taken the proposition, even if it is approved. It is also unlikely to happen as the last time a state was split apart was during the Civil War, when Virginia was split to form West Virginia.

Not sure what a proposition is? Read our blog post: How does direct democracy work in the USA?