SACRAMENTO, Calif. --
A proposal to divide California into three states will be on the November statewide ballot.
Backers of CAL 3 said last month they collected and delivered 600,000 signatures to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla's Office, surpassing the 365,000 required by law to qualify for the ballot.
CAL 3 is led by venture capitalist Tim Draper.
The proposal calls for three states to be formed:
Northern California, roughly the Bay Area to the Oregon border; California, which would include six coastal counties, including Los Angeles, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, San Benito and Ventura; and Southern California, which would go from Fresno to San Diego, excluding those six coastal counties.
If the measure passes, the California Legislature and U.S. Congress would still have to approve it.
Article IV of the U.S. Constitution discusses the process for admitting new states to the federal union. Specifically, section three of Article IV says if Congress approves a measure to create a new state, the measure would be presented to the president for approval or veto. In the event of a veto, the measure may be approved over the president's objections with a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Four U.S. states were admitted to the union after being split from an existing state: Kentucky, Maine, Vermont and West Virginia. The last such split - West Virginia's split from Virginia - occurred in 1863 during the Civil War.
