California is facing calls for the state to break away from the rest of America in a bid likened to Britain’s escape from the European Union.
While these voices do not represent the vast majority, campaigners are gaining small victories – with official process activated to assess whether resources would be available in such an event.
The most populous state in the US is famed for its surf and beach-lined west coast. It is broken into 58 separate counties.
And San Bernardino County, neighbouring LA, has passed a ballot measure for officials to review state resources and appropriations “up to and including secession from the State of California”.
This is largely symbolic as it would take an act of Congress to break apart the state.
But it comes amid a wider movement, dubbed “Calexit”, which would see the state of California depart from the US with its own identity.
Advocates point to California’s economy – the fifth largest in the world – and political differences to much of the US as reasons for independence.
In San Bernardino, California’s fifth largest county which is home to 2.2 million people, the ballot Measure EE passed with 50.6 percent of the vote on November 8.
“Don’t treat us like a bumper sticker that can be easily scraped off a vehicle,” Bill Velto, mayor of Upland in San Bernardino County, told Fox News Digital.
However, the actual secession of the county from the state is extremely unlikely. Already, there have been hundreds of attempts to break up the state, none of which have been close to going through.
Jeff Burum, an affordable housing developer who lives in San Bernardino, said the movement is “really about getting our fair share” rather than actually seceding from the state.
“The measure was designed intentionally with the word ‘secession’ in it. But it was really about encouraging the residents to want to fight for our fair share of appropriations, our fair share of treatment,” Burum told Fox News.
The measure reads: “Do the people of San Bernardino County want San Bernardino County elected representatives to study and advocate for all options to obtain the County’s fair share of state funding, up to and including secession from the State of California?”
Burum said that state lawmakers failed to allocate proper resources to the county, given its size and population.
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The city of San Bernardino is the third largest metropolitan area in California after Los Angeles and San Francisco. It has also been ranked one of the most dangerous in the US, beating out LA and Oakland, California.
“I think the governor of our state would just as soon ignore us, and ignore what’s happened in San Bernardino,” Burum said of Governor Gavin Newsom when asked whether he had been in discussion with local leaders.
The political action committee known as “Yes California” advocates for the states secession – it takes its name from the 2014 Scottish pro-independence campaign “Yes Scotland”.
The movement has been called “a colossally stupid idea” and “a waste of time” by California papers The San Jose Mercury and The San Diego Union-Tribune, respectfully.
California’s elected officials have also slammed the idea, which, according to a 2017 poll by UC Berkley, was supported by around one in three Californians.
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Other polls have show various levels of support, never reaching more than 33 percent.
Even if Californians did vote to secede, it would take an amendment to the Constitution to allow them to go. Two thirds of Congress would have to agree and the law would have to be ratified by 38 states.
In 1869, the Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White that no state can unilaterally leave the Union.
For context, in 1861, 11 states attempted to leave the Union. This was followed by the country’s deadliest war, the American Civil War, in which more than 600,000 Americans died.
For now at least, it is safe to say the Golden State isn’t going anywhere and will continue to remain an integral part of the United States.
