Hacker News Reader

Comment by chiph | Hacker News Reader

This proposal has interesting aspects regarding percentage of representation in the US Senate. Over time, as the US population grew, each persons representation percentage has fallen. California had 1.4 million people in 1900, and 38 million people in 2012.

In 1900, each person had 0.000148 of a Senator. In 2012 that is 0.00000526 of a Senator. With the new states, that goes up approximately six-fold to 0.0000316

The Constitution says there are 2 Senators per state. So, splitting California up means 10 additional seats in the senate for the people living there, so that each person's proportional representation goes up - i.e. it's easier to get the ear of your senator because you are competing with fewer people for his attention.

Not sure what would happen in the US House -- I think the number of Representatives is set at a fixed number (435) by law. So the results of the next census would be .. interesting.

View on HN

There are two things the federal government is extremely unlikely to do.

* Let any part of what is now California cease being part of the union.

* Assign twelve senators to what is now California.

There are only two ways to avoid both pitfalls.

* California remains one state.

* The US Constitution is amended to allow only two senators for six states (which used to be one).

Any proposal for splitting California without including that constitutional amendment is effectively a call for secession, and is likely to be treated as such by the federal government.

While splitting into multiple states is not going to happen, It is clearly not a call for secession.

>> Let any part of what is now California cease being part of the union.

That's an interesting point. If five new states are created, do they have to petition the United States to become part of the Union?

>> Assign twelve senators to what is now California.

The other states will likely object to this, as it will be a reduction in their own voting power in the Senate. Aside from the "joining the Union" part though, I don't think they have any say in it.

> If five new states are created, do they have to petition the United States to become part of the Union?

For five new states to be created by removing territory from an existing state, the split would have to be approved by Congress; the new states don't have to be admitted to the Union separately from Congressional permission for them to create them in the first place -- allowing them to be created would admit them to the Union.

Each house district is supposed to have about the same population, so California's 53 districts would have to be redrawn if any of them crossed the new state lines, which follow current county boundaries.

It also makes for an interesting redistribution of electoral votes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com