Seven Southern Illinois counties are considering secession and splitting from Cook County and its surrounding counties, including Iroquois County, Calhoun County, Clinton County, Green County, Jersey County, Madison County and Perry County.

In light of the 2024 election, there are groups in Southern Illinois attempting to separate their respective counties from Cook County, and the Chicago area.

“On April 17, 2024 during the monthly county board meeting,” Madison County board member Mick Madison says, “the county board voted to allow the following question to be placed on the November ballot: ‘Shall the board of Madison County correspond with the boards of 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?’”

Essentially, the board was debating on whether or not to have people vote to secede from the state in order to get away from Cook County.

“While our County Board was not necessarily in favor or against the idea,” Clinton County Clerk Vicky Albers says, “they decided that they would allow the voters of the county to voice their opinion.”

“This is not the first time that this has been on the ballot in Illinois.” Albers says, “Other counties have had it on the ballot in previous elections.”

Other than Cook County and its surrounding areas, many Illinoisans voted Republican in this year’s presidential election, but due to the dense population of the city, Illinois is nearly always a Democratic state in the electoral college.

“In the states, the elections are dominated by the largest cities, and there is no electoral college for state elections, so the minority voice is squelched. We now have just 2 or 3 counties that dominate the 102 total counties in our elections,” says Madison. “Many citizens have had enough of being ripped off and run over by the state government.”

In a lot of the counties, the majority of voters were in favor of splitting from Cook County.

“New Illinois,” the group responsible for getting the question placed on the ballot this year, has members with pretty much polar opposite views to most voters residing in Cook County.

According to their organization, The New State of Illinois, “We are seeking a state split according to the procedures provided in Article IV, section three of the U.S. Constitution, following the West Virginia model.”

“Something we hear people say is, ‘Chicago is the economic engine of the state. We can’t make it without them.’ Response to that? First, most states do not have a city anywhere close to the size of Chicago, and they do just fine,” says Loret Newlin, member of the Separation for Illinois group. “Second, Chicago and Cook county aren’t just providers of income, they have a lot of expenses and debt they want the state to share in. Third, Chicago is on the decline as businesses are moving out.”

Taxes are one of the main reasons for the formation of groups wanting to secede the state, other than the major overarching reason being political conflict.

While this is something mainly happening in Southern Illinois, because of the similar political views of the other counties in Illinois, aside from the Chicago counties, it might make people wonder if this is something that could actually happen.

Who knows, maybe other Illinois elections will add the question to the ballot in the future.