Effort To Create New State Called ‘North Colorado’ Grows

AKRON, Colo. (CBS4) – There’s a growing effort to create a 51st state out of parts of northeast Colorado.

Ten counties, including Weld and Morgan, started talking about seceding last month. Now some people Lincoln and Cheyenne counties say they want to join a new state they’d call “North Colorado.”

Organizers of the secession effort say their interests are not being represented at the state Capitol. Representatives from the 10 counties held a meeting on Monday in the town of Akron in Weld County to begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado.

How did West-By-God Virginia secede from Virginia?

Through a vote of the body calling itself the Virginia legislature and which was recognized by Congress as such, and a majority vote in both the House and the Senate. Since the rest of the Virginia legislature was off rebelling it was actually pretty easy.

So no involvement of state legislatures?

In this case? Just Colorado's since all the counties are in that state. If counties in Kansas or Nebraska also wanted to be part of the new state then the legislatures of those states would get involved. It's in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution.

By other state legislatures I mean is this process in any was similar to a Constitutional Amendment...which requires two-thirds or three quarters approval of the states?

I think you're missing a word. Article IV, Section 3 reads: "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States 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."

Legislatures of the States concerned is the operative phrase. If the new state is created from a single state, as in this case, the the only legislature concerned is Colorado's and all the other state legislatutures have no say. If two states combine into a single state, the both the existing legislatures are concerned and need to approve it. The other states indicate their approval or disapproval only through a vote in the House and Senate.

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