XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.california
A ballot measure that could lead to San Bernardino County seceding is succeeding by the narrowest of margins, according to early unofficial
election results.
As of 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8, results showed a majority of voters
backing Measure EE, with 50.44% voting in favor to 49.56% against.
UPDATE: San Bernardino County voters support ‘fair share’ measure — and
maybe secession
Measure EE is about more than secession, of course:
“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?” it reads on the ballot.
See the latest election results.
But it’s that final idea — of San Bernardino County leaving California —
that grabbed most of the attention.
Real estate developer Jeff Burum originally introduced the idea of the
measure at the July 26 meeting of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.
“With the way things are in California right now, I don’t know if there’s
any hope for California,” he told the board in July.
Burum has argued — as have some supervisors — that San Bernardino County
is getting shortchanged in tax revenue by both the state of California and federal government.
County staff assembled data from the California controller’s office to
look at how much money each of the state’s 56 counties get, per capita,
from the state and federal governments. San Bernardino County ranked 36th
on the document, behind behind Los Angeles County, which is ranked 28th,
but ahead of wealthy counties like Sonoma (45th), Santa Barbara (52nd) and Orange (55th) counties.
The top 10 counties on the county’s document — Alpine, Sierra, Trinity,
Modoc, Mariposa, Del Norte, Plumas, Glenn, Inyo and Lassen — are mostly
rural, with average to low per capita incomes, suggesting that counties do worse based on having higher populations, rather than political clout.
Prior to the election, Burum predicted Measure EE would be passed by a super-majority of residents. A small poll he paid for showed 53% of
respondents supported Measure EE.
If the measure passes and the Board of Supervisors finds no way to get the county’s “fair share” other than secession, it’s still a long shot.
Both the state Legislature and Congress would have to vote to approve the county striking out on its own, which experts say is extremely unlikely to happen.
If the county’s secession movement did succeed, the new state — which
Burum has suggested could be called “Empire” — would be the first since
Hawaii was established in 1959. And it would be the first state carved out
of another since West Virginia left Virginia in 1863 over Appalachian residents’ opposition to slavery.
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https://www.sbsun.com/2022/11/08/san-bernardino-county-secession-measure- in-voters-hands-on-election-day/>
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