North Dakotans Petition to Secede

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North Dakotans Petition to Secede

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While he didn't win the presidency, Mitt Romney was successful here in North Dakota... and now some are taking their election night disappointment to a whole new level; petitions on the "We the People" section of the White House website have started to pop up asking that several states be allowed to secede from the union.

Obama won with 51% of the vote, but that means nearly half of the people who voted didn't want to see the president get re-elected, and now some people want their state to leave the union.

"Obama won by a small margin in the popular vote and by a huge margin in the electoral college," Clay Jenkinson, director of the Dakota Institute, explains. "Elections have consequences. We re-elected Barack Obama. I see absolutely no reason for any state to want to secede."

One of the twenty states with a petition listed online is North Dakota. It was started by someone in Grand Forks over the weekend and already has over 4,000 signatures.

Kristy Little of Baldwin, ND, is open to the idea. "North Dakota's pretty self sufficient and has got great people," she says. "It would be a good country."

Jeff Herman of Bismarck, ND, disagrees: "I think we're a nation undivided, you know, ...stand for one, one for all. So I really don't think it's probably a good idea."

While Jenkinson says it's highly unlikely that any of the states would be successful in seceding, he says it is the right of the people to do so.

"Jefferson believed very strongly that any state had a right to secede at any time, for any purpose," Jenkinson reasons. "He didn't recommend it, but he knew that the philosophy of the United States was based upon the principle of self determination."

Among the other 20 states filing petitions are New York, Montana, Florida, and Texas. Texas is currently the only state to exceed the 25,000 signatures needed to require a response from the White House.

Jenkinson believes that this will likely go away in the next few weeks as people calm down.

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North Dakotans Petition to Secede - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

North Dakotans Petition to Secede

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