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Residents in three more counties – Brown, Hardin and a portion
of Madison County – voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution
allowing their county board to explore the possibility of
leaving the state, bringing the total to 27. In all three
counties, close to 75% of residents were in favor of the idea.
The driving force behind the referendums was to allow the county
board of each area to coordinate with other county boards to
explore the possibility of leaving Illinois because of the
influence that Chicago and Cook County have on the state’s
political decisions.
In
Brown County, the ballot question read, “Shall the board of
Brown County correspond with the boards of the other counties of
Illinois outside of Cook County about the possibility of
separating from Cook County to form a new state, and to seek
admission to the union as such, subject to the approval of the
people.”
“We don’t use the word secession because that’s not what this
is, it’s legally something different,” said G.H. Merritt, chair
of the nonpartisan organization New Illinois. “We are trying to
form a new state, and we’re not trying to kick Chicago out of
Illinois, we’re trying to kick ourselves out of Illinois.”
Only Congress has the power to create new states, but there has
never been a formal agreement on how the process should take
place.
Merritt said a driving force behind the expanding movement is
that many southern Illinoisans want to be heard regarding issues
that affect the state as a whole.
“You have this movement in Illinois, you have it in California,
you have it in New York, you have it in Colorado, it's because
the people in the rural areas don’t have a meaningful voice in
the government,” Merritt said.
She said a resolution is expected to be filed in January to
begin the process.
This is not the first time frustrated downstate Illinoisans have
lobbied to split from the state. In the 1970s, residents of
western Illinois declared themselves “Forgottonia” as a protest
against the government’s failure to improve the transportation
infrastructure.
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
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