Rural Colorado Counties Threaten Secession From State

It sounds implausible and unimaginable for a state to want to secede from the United States, let alone counties within a particular state, but county commissioners in rural parts of northern Colorado are pushing forward with a plan to segregate.

This measure would allow them to become their own independent state apart from Colorado.

Easier said than done. There are difficult hurdles to overcome when trying to disaffiliate oneself from a statehood, as the move would require not just a secession vote showing the counties’ desire to depart, it would also require votes of approval by Colorado’s Legislature and by the US Congress.

According to article four, subsection three of the US Constitution, this measure would be violate the terms thereof:

“No new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.”

However, according to the National Constitution Center, the aforementioned process has been used successfully to create five states: Vermont from New York, in 1791; Kentucky from Virginia, in 1792; Tennessee from North Carolina, in 1796; Maine from Massachusetts, in 1820; and West Virginia from Virginia, in 1863.

Why the push to secede? It seems the state legislature and local administration is no longer in sync or accurately represents the moral vision of many of the state’s constituents within Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma, and Kit Carson counties.

Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway was quoted by CBS News, conveying, “We really feel in northern and northeastern Colorado that we are ignored – citizens’ concerns are ignored, and we truly feel disenfranchised.”

These communities feel their way of life has been threatened and their voices ignored by those governing the state – as legislation yielding conflicting sway over gun control and regulation of oil and gas industry has been passed, regardless of how the local little man feels.

[Image via Wikicommons]