A report is not independence

The end of this plan is not independence. It is the first honest accounting California would have of what independence would involve, put in front of Californians so they can decide with it in hand.

1. What the report is, and is not

It is a published document with findings and policy recommendations, carrying dissent alongside the majority view. It is not a declaration, a mandate, or a decision about California’s future.

It is entirely possible that a serious commission returns findings unfavorable to independence on some of the seven questions. We are asking for the inquiry anyway, and we would publish the result either way, because a movement that only wants a study it is guaranteed to win is not asking for a study.

2. What the Legislature may do

The Resolution says that on receiving the report the Legislature may consider further action to give effect to the findings.

May is the operative word, and it is in the text on purpose. The Resolution does not bind a future Legislature and could not. What it does is put a completed body of work in front of one, which is a materially different situation from the one that exists now.

3. Why findings are what close the gap

In June 2025, 56% of Californians said the state would be better off as an independent country. Asked how they would vote on a ballot measure, the split was 44% yes to 54% no.

That ten-point gap is people who believe the idea has merit and are not willing to vote for it while the practical questions are unanswered. Those are the same questions the commission is charged with answering, which is the design.

A campaign that tried to close ten points with advertising would be trying to persuade people out of a reasonable caution. A campaign that closes it with findings is answering them. The polling, in full.

4. What putting it to voters would actually take

The Legislature can place a measure on the ballot itself, which is how five of the 14 measures on the November 2026 ballot got there. That is the route this plan runs on, and it is the reason the Resolution goes to the Legislature first.

Earlier California independence campaigns never reached a ballot at all. They failed trying to qualify by petition, not at the ballot box. What happened to the last campaign.

California Secretary of State, November 2026 ballot certifications.

5. Who actually decides

Californians, through the ordinary machinery of ballots and elections. Not this organization, not a commission, and not the Legislature acting alone.

We advocate for separation and we are not neutral about the outcome. We are also not entitled to it. The reason this plan runs through an inquiry and a public vote rather than around them is that a result obtained any other way would not hold, and would not deserve to.

6. What we are committing to

To pursue the inquiry, to publish what it finds in full including the dissent, and to argue our case in public with the findings on the table.

That commitment is worth more than a prediction. A movement that tells its supporters the answer before the work is done is asking them to take its word for something nobody has established yet, and this movement exists precisely because that is how the argument has been conducted until now.

7. What moves this

Making sure the report is read. A finding nobody covers changes nothing, and that part is squarely ours to drive rather than anyone else’s to grant.

That work starts long before the report exists, by building the audience that will be waiting for it. Join the movement.