Oregonians Want Idaho

From Yahoo:

“Disgruntled Oregonians in five counties vote in favor of joining Idaho. What’s next?”

Idaho could be getting a lot bigger if some voters in Oregon get their way. Thousands of people in eastern Oregon voted Tuesday for their elected officials to consider ditching their state and becoming part of Idaho. Voters in Sherman, Lake, Grant, Baker and Malheur counties all voted for ballot measures that would lead to them becoming Idahoans. People in Union and Jefferson counties had already voted in favor during the November election. The ballot initiatives called on county officials to meet to discuss and consider a border move to Idaho. Baker County’s election results weren’t yet available on the Oregon Secretary of State’s page, but the Baker City Herald reported that a majority — 3,064 to 2,307 — voted in favor of county commissioners “meet(ing) three times per year to discuss a proposal to include 18 counties, including Baker, as part of Idaho.”

The vote is only the first step of the “Greater Idaho” project, which would allow some Oregon counties to join a state that advocates say more closely aligns with their political preferences. Proponents say the “swaths of conservative, pro-Trump, anti-tax voters” in rural parts of Oregon have more in common with Idaho, which they want to claim as their own state. Oregon, which currently has two Democratic senators in the U.S. Senate, has voted blue in presidential elections since 1988, while Idaho, with two Republican U.S. senators, has voted red in presidential contests since 1968. “This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon,” Mike McCarter, president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, said in a news release. “If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.” The complicated, multi-step process would require approval from both the Idaho and Oregon state legislatures, and approval from U.S. Congress, which is currently controlled by Democrats. The group hopes to eventually consume all but 14 of Oregon’s 36 counties. The counties that would stay in Oregon would be mostly in the wine-rich Willamette Valley. “Rural counties have become increasingly outraged by laws coming out of the Oregon Legislature that threaten our livelihoods, our industries, our wallet, our gun rights, and our values,” McCarter previously said in a news release. “We tried voting those legislators out but rural Oregon is outnumbered and our voices are now ignored. This is our last resort.”

^ With all the chaos and the “Purge Zones” in Portland I can understand why Oregonians want to leave. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/disgruntled-oregonians-five-counties-vote-163025909.html