# Utah county wants to split

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-county-wants-to-split/829292>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [February 10, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-county-wants-to-split/829292 "2019-02-10T19:16:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 10

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pithily\_Effusive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pithily_effusive/32/252_2.png) [@Pithily\_Effusive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithily_Effusive)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-county-wants-to-split/829292/181 "2019-02-20T01:18:25Z")

</div>

Oh geez. I thought Utah wanted to split the U.S. I’d say yes! Give the star to Puerto Rico. However, I’m still hoping Texas splits.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-county-wants-to-split/829292/182 "2019-02-21T13:28:48Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> Pithily Effusive  
> BANNED

Well, that didn’t take long.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-county-wants-to-split/829292/183 "2019-02-23T21:37:42Z")

</div>

> [@YamatoTwinkie](#):
>
> I think secession should have a high bar for both parties. At least 100% of the **combined** vote between both the child territory and the remaining parent territory must agree to the breakup. (i.e, if 90% of the child territory votes to leave, then at least 10% of the parent territory must also approve the split).

Sorry for the late response…I’ve been out of town for a bit.

I’m trying to understand your logic here, so I hope you can help me out.

There are about 15,000 residents in this county. For sake of argument, let’s assume that 10,000 of them are of voting age. Furthermore, let’s also assume that 7,000 live in the parent territory and 3,000 live in the child territory.

You are saying that if 90% of the child territory votes to leave (2700 votes), then at least 10% of the parent territory also needs to approve. 10% of 7,000 is 700, so, if I am understanding you correctly, 3400 affirmative votes (out of 10,000) would be enough to approve the secession?

Or take it completely to the extreme: 100% of the child territory votes to secede, and 0% of the parent territory votes to secede. The combined vote would be 100%, yes? Thus, 3000 votes, all from the child territory, would be enough to approve secession.

If this is indeed your logic, I will most emphatically disagree. Please tell me where I’ve misunderstood your argument.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utah-county-wants-to-split/829292.md?page=9)