Texas, like the other forty-nine states, cannot legally secede.  That was settled in the 1860s.  Texas did maintain the right, however, to divide into four additional states if its citizens decided to do so. How would you divide the current state so that its 24,000,000 people would be evenly apportioned?

Dividing the state by population would be impossible because of the reality of urban concentration.  Political theorists and geographers, however, have speculated where natural borders might be formed.  In the July 2009 addition of D Magazine, author Nate Silver offers this suggestion toward splitting Texas into five independent states.