This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SACRAMENTO-

Backers of a measure to split California into six states say they have more than enough signatures to put it on the 2016 ballot.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper hand delivered 43,000 signatures at the Sacramento County Election Office, some of the 1.3 million signatures he says will eventually be submitted in counties throughout the state.  Just over 800,000 valid signatures are required to qualify for a vote.

Draper spent his own money to qualify the initiative as the principal financial backer of the plan. He says California has grown too large to be responsive the different needs of residents in diverse regions in the state.

“I want to be well represented. I want my state to reflect my interests and I feel all Californians feel the same way,” Draper said.

He’s been criticized for creating a state dubbed “Silicon Valley” as one of the six states which would be the wealthiest of the six states being proposed.   The legislative analyst says four of the six would be poorer than they are now, but Draper said that’s because California is too big to be responsive to the needs of it’s different regions.

“Those places are poorer under the current regime.  They don’t have to be poor, they can be wealthy states,” said Draper.

Split California into 6 States? Issue Could be on the Ballot
A diagram of how some would like to split up California.

But critics noted that Draper spent $23 million of his own money to qualify and campaign for a school voucher initiative in 2000 that was roundly defeated. Seventy percent of voters rejected it.

“If you have money, you can get anything on the ballot and I think this is exhibit A,” said Steve Maviglio of OneCalifornia, a group he started to oppose the Six California initiative.

He noted the added costs of creating six bureaucracies and six legislatures.  And he noted that Congress would need to approve the plan even if it did win approval by voters.  He said prospect of Congress adding 10 new U.S. Senators and changing the political balance in Washington wasn’t likely.

“If there were a tax on political ridiculousness, you could fund the state budget this measure,” said Maviglio.

Draper said he didn’t know exactly how much he spent for the effort so far.  He also says he doesn’t plan on spending a lot to campaign for it.

“I got this thing on the ballot so I feel great about that but I’m putting as little as I possibly can in moving forward.  This campaign has to be taken on by Californians and I know they want it,” said Draper.

This movement is not connected with the effort of northern California counties trying to break off to form the State of Jefferson. Read more about that effort here.