In non-binding referenda Tuesday in Colorado, voters in five counties endorsed secession from the Centennial State. Six more counties rejected proposals to create a 51st state of “North Colorado.”
Voters in the 11 counties put the question on the ballot, upset that the state legislature had enacted environmental protections and gun violence reduction measures.
“The heart of the 51st State Initiative is simple: We just want to be left alone to live our lives without heavy-handed restrictions from the state Capitol,” Jeffrey Hare, an secession advocate told the Denver Post.
Congress must approve admission of a new state into the Union. But the U.S. Constitution also requires that secession of parts of any existing state be approved both by the voters and legislature of that state — an unlikely proposition even had all 11 counties voted for secession. The last state to secede from another was West Virginia in 1863.