A ballot initiative that would have asked voters to split California into six separate states failed to qualify for the ballot in 2016, the secretary of state's office reported Friday.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper submitted 1.37 million signatures in July in support of the measure, saying the state with 38.3 million people has become ungovernable because it has too many diverse interests for politicians to effectively represent their constituents.
A random sampling of ballot initiative signatures from all 58 counties found that just 66 percent were projected to be valid, and that it would fall more than 500,000 signatures short of the number needed to make the ballot.
Draper sought to split California into six states called Jefferson, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California and South California.
Draper, who has put more than $5 million into the effort so far, said in a statement Friday that he believed enough signatures were valid and that a full review would prove that.
"Six Californias will conduct a review of the signatures determined to be invalid," he said. "The internal verification process conducted by our signature-gathering firm predicted a much higher validity rate than the random sample result."
Critics say Draper's plan would separate the wealthiest and poorest Californians, potentially creating some of the poorest states in the nation. Former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez was heading a campaign opposing the measure.
Six Californias "would have created massive inequities among our states and caused chaos in our state's water, energy, higher education, transportation, and other systems," he said in a prepared statement.
He said he was relieved that Californians will not have to endure a two-year campaign of California bashing.
Draper's effort is not linked to a separate movement that would allow some northern counties to split from California to form a new state of Jefferson.
Associated Press writer Fenit Nirappil contributed to this report.
