Two more N. Cal. counties to vote on secession

Jeffersonstate.com map

UPDATE, JUNE 4: "Fifty-nine percent of Del Norte County voters rejected the secessionist measure in unofficial returns Tuesday. In Tehama County, a secessionist proposal was leading by 53 percent, with votes continuing to be tallied Wednesday," reports The Associated Press. "A similar but unrelated question on the ballot in Siskiyou County, to rename it the Republic of Jefferson, failed with only 44 percent of voters in favor."

Residents in two conservative, rural counties in Northern California will vote Tuesday "whether they should support a proposed move to secede from California and form a breakaway state of Jefferson" with part of Oregon, Lee Romney and Veronica Rocha report for the Los Angeles Times. Some residents of Del Norte and Tehama counties, which have about 91,000 people, have complained "about overregulation, lack of representation and a culture clash with urban areas."

California's Siskiyou County voted in September to form Jefferson. Since then "elected officials in Glenn, Modoc, Siskiyou and Yuba counties already voted to join the movement," while supervisors in Butte County will vote June 10, The Associated Press reports.

The region has 11 counties that share one state senator, compared to 20 senators for the greater Los Angeles area and 10 for the San Francisco Bay Area, Del Norte County resident Aaron Funk told AP. Funk said, "Essentially, we have no representation whatsoever.”

"The counties that could opt in—as many as 16, according to supporters—make up more than a quarter of the state’s land mass but only a small portion of its population," AP writes. "The seven counties that have voted or will this month have a combined geographic area twice the size of New Hampshire, with about 467,000 residents." (Read more) The least populated state, Wyoming, has an estimated 583,000 residents.