Move to break California away from U.S. halted
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The authors of a ballot initiative, "Yes California," said Monday they were suspending the effort after months of media exposure, and various criticisms, about the notion.
Marcus Ruiz Evans, the official author of the movement, sent an email to California's secretary of state Monday asking to withdraw the initiative, which could have gotten on the state's ballot in November 2018. Evans and Yes California President Louis J. Marinelli were working to gather enough signatures.
"For me, today, my ballot initiative petition drive came to an end," Marinelli wrote in an email to supporters. "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and our dream shall never die."
It's unclear how much support the so-called "Calexit" could have received on election day next year or whether it's even possible for California -- or any state, for that matter -- to formally break away from the United States, at all. ■