Yes California has goal independence referendum
Yes California is a Californian political action committee that promotes the Independence of the state of California from the United States.It was founded in 2015 by Louis J. Marinelli, a right-wing political activist, and its efforts have been supported by the Russian government.The organization promoted a proposed initiative to be placed on the 2019 California state ballot, which, if it had passed, would have required an independence plebiscite to be held in March 2019 on the question of California's independence. In order to comply with federal law, however, it would have still required an amendment to the United States Constitution. In January 2017, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave his approval for the organization to gather petition signatures to put the initiative on the ballot. The organization then halted their efforts in April, stating that they want to re-tool their proposal and campaign. They were again cleared to collect petition signatures on September 10, 2020.In 2023, citing national divorce, Yes California announced a new ballot measure campaign that would divide parts of coastal California, including the Bay Area, from California to become an independent country while leaving the rest of the state in the Union. The organization's president, Louis J. Marinelli, described the underlying objective of the new ballot measure was "to get the extreme, far-left liberals and progressives who are ruining the country as a whole, to go and build a progressive utopia of their own on the Pacific coast, and leave us out of it.”History
The hashtag #Calexit trended in social media as the campaign gained attention in the wake of the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in November 2016; California gave Hillary Clinton 61.5% of the vote to Trump's 33.2%.  Marinelli asserted this was evidence of the political divide between the state and nation, saying California is more progressive than the rest of the country and that Californians were offended by Trump's statements about minorities.The campaign staged protests outside the Capitol building in Sacramento after the November 2016 election, though its organizers asserted the protests had been planned months in advance and would have been held, regardless of who won the election. Immediately following the election, the campaign received 11,000 emails.On November 21, 2016, the Yes California campaign submitted an initiative for signature gathering, with an amendment sent later on December 23 to correct a typo. If passed by voters in November 2018, it would have repealed Article III, Section 1 of the California Constitution, which states California is "an inseparable part" of the U.S., and require an independence plebiscite to be held on March 5, 2019, on the question of California's independence, the passage of which would have required at a minimum 50% voter turnout and 55% voting yes. If the proposed 2019 independence referendum had passed, the Governor of California would have then been required to apply for California to join the United Nations.On January 26, 2017, the office of California Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave its approval for the signature gathering process to begin.The Washington Post reported on February 18 that the Yes California campaign had opened up to 53 chapters across the state, but had not yet reported contributions to the California Secretary of State's office.The campaign then ran into controversy, as its president, Marinelli, was reported to have received significant assistance from the Russian government to promote his efforts. Marinelli announced on December 18, 2016, that the Yes California campaign had opened an "embassy" in Moscow as a cultural centre to help educate Russians about California's history, boost trade, and promote tourism. The Moscow office was partially funded by a Kremlin-backed charity linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia provided the office space rent-free.On April 17, in the context of the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections, the Yes California organization announced that it had decided to halt its efforts to seek a clean break from the controversy surrounding Marinelli's connections to Russia, and to re-tool its proposal and campaign. Marinelli also announced that he would seek permanent residence in Russia. Still, BBC News reported in November 2017 that it found evidence that social media accounts with ties to Russia had pushed a huge Twitter trend in favor of an independent California on election night 2016.