A number of counties in northern California are considering breaking away to form the 51st state of America called Jefferson, due to a perceived lack of representation in California’s state legislature.
Elected officials from Glenn, Modoc, Siskiyou and Yuba counties have already voted to join the movement, officials in Butte County voting on the subject on 10 June.
Voters in Del Norte and Tehama are also deciding on an advisory measure that will ask their county’s board of supervisors to join the secession movement on 3 June.
A number of other counties are reportedly waiting for the results of next week’s votes to decide how to proceed, with up to 16 counties possibly involved in total.
The states that are considering secession from California are mostly rural and poor areas, with lives of residents very different to those of people in Los Angeles or San Francisco, which hold the majority of senators due to the high population density of cities.
The path to the creation of a 51st state is a long one, and would require approval by the California legislature and Congress, but Jefferson could be the first break-away state since West Virginia seceded from Virginia during the Civil War in 1863 to become the 35th state of America.
