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SACRAMENTO —

Nearly two dozen counties are in favor of creating America’s 51st state.

The wind and rain didn’t wash away the resolve of supporters of the State of Jefferson. Around 200 people marched on the west steps of the Capitol with signed declarations from a total of 21 counties pledging their desire to separate from the State of California.

“We are having a declaration rally where we are submitting 13 additional counties to petition to be separated from the state of California,” Ginny Rapini, a state of Jefferson supporter, said Wednesday.

El Dorado is the latest county to join Yuba, Sutter, Colusa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Butte and 13 others. Each county’s board of supervisors has voted to break away from the state and join the State of Jefferson.

Wednesday morning, leaders handed over declarations from each county to the Assembly, Senate and the secretary of state.

“The declaration basically says, because of the lack of representation, it’s time for California to let us go form our own state,” said Howard Thomas, a State of Jefferson supporter from Plumas County.

Supporters said the reason behind their desire to break away from California is a lack of representation at the Capitol and in Washington.

“We have representatives that represent 11 counties all the way from here to the Oregon border, there is no way they can adequately represent all of us, we are all so different,” Rapini said.

They’re hoping to have legislation to separate from California in front of the Assembly and Senate to vote on no later than March.

“They may just table it or try to hide it, and if they do that it just makes our court case stronger because we are not being represented,” Thomas said.

They say if state leaders ignore the State of Jefferson, they will take their fight to the Supreme Court — a fight they believe they can win.

“I believe we are going to make this happen this time. This is not the first time, this has been going on for 60 years. This is the first time we have gotten this far, and I do believe we are going to take it over the finish line,” Rapini said.

For more information on the effort, head to SOJ51.net.

Editor’s Note: We reported in an earlier version of this story that Placer County’s board of supervisors had voted to break away from the state of California and join the state of Jefferson. According to Placer County’s director of communication, Placer County has not taken any action on this issue and has no plans to take action. At this time, it is not something the board of supervisors is considering.

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