Editorial: Breaking up California should be much harder to do

If the "Three Californias" measure qualifies for the ballot later this spring - and there's no reason to think it won't - voters will be confronted with an existential question. With one check mark, they could start the process of breaking the 168-year-old Golden State into three pieces: the new states of California, Northern California and Southern California.

Voters might reasonably assume that a decision of such magnitude would come before them only after months, if not years, of study by academics, planning by elected officials and vetting