Five counties in rural Oregon voted this week to leave the state and join nearby Idaho, according to The Washington Post.
Oregon counties want to join Idaho
Resident voters in Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur and Sherman counties all approved a measure that would require local officials to consider remaking the border of Oregon to remake the border and allow the counties to become a part of Idaho.
Citizens for Greater Idaho — as well as the group’s president, Mike McCarter — pushed the measure forward, hoping that the Republican parts of Oregon would be better represented by Idaho, The Washington Post reports.
- “This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon,” McCarter said in a statement. “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.”
Will Oregon counties join Idaho?
However, lawmakers in Oregon and Idaho would have to add bills to remake the boundaries of the state, The Washington Post reports. They’d also have to get enough votes to make sure a governor veto doesn’t happen, either. If that works out, then Congress would still need to approve the deal.
How long has Oregon tried to move to Idaho?
Rural Oregon counties voted to secede from the state to form a new state called “Greater Idaho” back in November 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, as I wrote for the Deseret News. McCarter told Fox News at the time that Oregon Republicans wanted more freedoms and lower taxes, which is why they wanted to switch things up and become apart of Idaho.
- “I’m not really sure what the chances are, if you’re going to put into odds or bet on it,” McCarter said back in 2020, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “But if we don’t attempt to do something like that we continue to go down a road of frustration about the state Legislature not paying attention to rural Oregon.”