Will Secession Be On The Ballot In Tuscon, Arizona?

A group of Democratic activists from Tucson and surrounding Pima County have launched a petition drive seeking support for a November 2012 ballot question on "whether the 48th state (Arizona) should be divided in two," Reuters is reporting.

Recent attempts to carve out one state from another have ended in failure. A proposal to partition Long Island went nowhere. A plan to divide California in two likewise failed.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting development and if the backers of what they're calling Baja Arizona (the 51st State!) get the required 48,000 signatures, then Pima County voters will vote on it in a non-binding referendum in next November's general election.

Reuters reports:

Backers have until July 5 next year to collect the 48,000 signatures required to qualify for a spot on the ballot. If they succeed, it would mark only the first hurdle in a long, circuitous process that even the most determined of supporters readily acknowledge has little chance of bearing fruit.

"We at least need to get it on the ballot, as a nonbinding resolution, to ask the people of Pima County if they want to be a part of Arizona," Tucson attorney Paul Eckerstrom, a former Pima County Democratic chairman who launched the campaign, told Reuters. "All the stars would have to align for this to happen, but it could conceivably happen by the fall of 2013."
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