Initiative to split California fails

The Daily Democrat/Bay Area News Group/Josh Richman, 9/12/14. "Initiative to split California into six states fails to qualify for ballot." 

Thanks for your petition signature,
the results are swell

"Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper's "Six Californias" plan to break up the Golden State failed to qualify for November 2016's ballot, falling well short of the petition signatures required, the Secretary of State's Office reported Friday.

....  Draper issued a statement Friday saying that his paid signature gatherers collected more than enough to qualify the measure, and "we are confident that a full check of the signatures would confirm that fact." His team will review signatures determined to be invalid by several counties' registrars to see whether they're actually valid, because his contractor -- Carlsbad-based Arno Political Consulants -- had predicted a much higher validity rate.

....  In July, a few voters from different parts of California made startlingly similar complaints to this newspaper that paid signature gatherers for the Six Californias measure had lied to them, claiming the measure did the exact opposite of what it really does. Michael Arno, owner of Arno Political Consultants, downplayed the reports at the time, and said past allegations of skulduggery by his firm in other campaigns had been trumped up by political foes."  Read article. 

Related - Fix Pacifica reprint articles -  Initiative:  Breaking up is hard to do.  And remember the local anti-highway 1 widening petition distributed by PH1A?  They lied, the article:  here.

Note:  photograph from Mental floss, "How to tell if someone's lying." 

Posted by Kathy Meeh