Thirteen counties in Oregon have voted in favor of measures to begin negotiations on seceding from the state and joining neighboring Idaho.

The latest county to endorse the initiative was Crook County, where voters approved the “Greater Idaho Measure” on Tuesday. The proposal aims to move Oregon’s border approximately 200 miles to the west, which would place 14 counties and several partial counties under Idaho’s jurisdiction.

“The Oregon/Idaho line was established 163 years ago and is now outdated,” the movement’s website says. “It makes no sense in its current location because it doesn’t match the location of the cultural divide in Oregon.”

The organizers of the Greater Idaho movement argue that residents in eastern Oregon feel increasingly alienated by the state’s progressive policies, which they say contribute to high crime rates. Their website says becoming part of Idaho would offer lower taxes and improved representation and governance for the communities.

“We want an economy that is not held back by Oregon regulations and taxes, including environmental regulations,” Greater Idaho executive director Matt McCaw, said, according to the Daily Mail. “We’ll still have federal and Idaho regulations, and that’s plenty. Idaho knows how to respect rural counties and their livelihoods.”

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    • @XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      346 months ago

      Not really. They want nonwhite unhappy people to leave the country, not change it to their liking. So to comply with their own shoutings, they’d have to physically move to Idaho, not just reroute state borders to their liking.

      State borders are fucking dumb under the “one nation” notion. It’s 50 colonies in a trench coat, pretending it’s different than the EU

    • Neato
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      226 months ago

      Nah, they’re making everyone else redraw maps because they are too fucking lazy to pack up and move.

      • Drusas
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        56 months ago

        They don’t want to give up their rights to graze cattle for free on Oregon’s public land.