Initiative to Split Up California Fails to Qualify

Too many signatures determined to be invalid

A proposed initiative by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper to split California into six separate states failed to gather enough signatures to make the November 2016 ballot, the California Secretary of State's office said today.

The office said in a memo to local voter registrars and county clerks that "the petition has failed."

Former state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez of the California Majority Report, the main opponent of the wild idea, welcomed the flop, saying the proposal "was a solution in search of a problem that didn't address any of our state's challenges."