The United States might need to make room for some more stars on its flag.
A petition to split California into three different states has the required number of signatures to trigger a vote, CBS reports.
"This is an unprecedented show of support on behalf of every corner of California to create three state governments that emphasise representation, responsiveness, reliability and regional identity," said Tim Draper, a wealthy venture capitalist who funded the 'CAL3' petition.
Mr Draper says he's collected 600,000 signatures, well above the required 364,000.
If successful, the state - the largest by population - would be split into SoCal, NorCal and plain old Cal.
Cal would include Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito; SoCal would encompass Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera and Mono; while NorCal would house the rest.
Residents of each new state would get to choose a new name, if they wished.
The motivation for CAL3 is to give local communities more of a say in how they're run.
"CAL 3 is committed to solving California's most pressing issues, including the state's failing school systems that impact more than 6 million kids, highest-in-the-nation taxes, deteriorating infrastructure and strained government," said Mr Draper.
"Partitioning California into three states would empower regional communities to make better, fairer and more sensible decisions for their citizens."
California has the biggest vote share in the US presidential elections, and usually votes in favour of the Democratic candidate.
In the wake of Republican Donald Trump's election, many Californians expressed a desire to split from the US completely - a movement dubbed 'Calexit'. Opinion polls were against the idea however, as were most of the state's leaders.
CAL3 organisers said they have no connection to the Calexit movement. It's not clear how the state's 55 votes in the Electoral College would be divided, should the split go ahead.
If approved, the vote will take place in November.
Newshub.
