On April 6, Edgar County became the 24th Illinois county to vote in a county referendum to separate itself from Chicago. Voters passed the measure 83% to 17%.
Twenty-three counties in Illinois voted in county referendums to separate their counties from Chicago according to preliminary election results posted by county clerks Nov 3 or reported by phone Nov 4. Three of these counties voted in March 2020, 20 in November 2020, and Edgar County voted on April 6, 2021.
One county was 63% in favor, 23 counties were between 70% and 80% in favor, and Edgar County voted 83% in favor.
The attached map displays the results. These results are not available at the state website because they were county (not state) referendums posted on various official local websites that report county election results.
In November, this big news was sorely under-reported. It only appeared in full here: https://illinoisnewsroom.org/23-counties-and-counting-downstate-separation-referendum-wins-favor-in-november-election
This month, there doesn’t seem to have been any reporting on Edgar County’s result.
Context:
The largest group of counties that voted on the issue are a group bordering southern Indiana, as is Edgar County. The Illinois General Assembly would be reluctant to add two Republicans to the US Senate, which is a likely consequence of splitting Illinois into two states. It is possible that the Assembly might be willing to let these counties share Indiana’s senators by moving the Indiana/Illinois state line. State borders have been moved many times in US history. Most recently, in 1961 Minnesota and North Dakota moved their common border. For more on this, see https://redstatesecession.org/how-illinois-counties-can-join-a-neighboring-state
Getting rid of these counties would actually improve Illinois’ state budget outlook. Yet if Indiana is choosy about which counties it selects, it could annex a group of counties that would match Indiana’s average income.
Illinois’ legislature certainly wouldn’t miss the republican state legislators that downstate Illinois sends to Springfield. As the Left and Right in America grow more distant, and the friction between them grows more dangerous, moving state borders may be the necessary way to de-escalate.
One prominent Kentucky legislator is considering introducing a bill to do a study of the effects of, and options for, including Illinois counties into their state.
Contrary to reports, the author of the petitions and signature-collection efforts is Collin Cliburn of “The Illinois Separation”, not GH Merrit’s “New Illinois.”
Supporters of the plan to move the Illinois border had a Facebook group of 3500 people called Downstate Illinois Secession, but it was disabled by Facebook. The group moved to a social media site called MeWe here: https://mewe.com/group/5fa879b2b8d1266433e66141
Action steps:
Supporters are encouraged to ask their Illinois state legislators to contact us to connect them with the Kentucky legislator. Our email is admin ~at~ RedStateSecession.org
Once connected to another state, nothing stops subsequent separation into another state.
It’s got to be more than just Chicago, Cook County itself has seen it’s suburbs degenerate and the stink is the entire Chicagoland area. Cut it off at the 41st parallel just south of Kankakee. Then we won’t be ruled by communist criminals voted in by the bad people living up there.
Another big problem I see is all the Universities and Prisons are downstate. A divorce would leave the northern part without enough prison and university capacity and an excess downstate.
I posted a comment on another page about counties going to Iowa. Does your petition specify what state the county would go to? I would love if Knox County and all the counties north & west of it joined Iowa.
The petition that has been used so far is the one created by Illinois Separation. It just talks about creating a new state out of Chicago. I think a better question for the voters would include the possibility of joining another state.
I agree, I thought the southern Illinois counties could go to Missouri & Indiana while the western one could go to Iowa. Maybe I’ll work on that this summer. >:-)
I like the idea of Southern Illinois becoming its own state, with the cut off point being Effingham. The liberal Universities like near E. St. Louis and in Carbondale would not be a problem because once conservatives have control over their own state we can control what is taught in ours schools. This would allow us to go back to a more meat and potatoes educational system, meaning no more propaganda to be taught at a state university. This would chase all the leftists back to Chicago.
Hello. Have you ever considered a “trade-off”-type deal? For instance, Lake County, Indiana (a liberal stronghold that borders Chicago) has a population of 487.599. A selection of 28 conservative counties in southeastern Illinois (Edwards, Wabash, White, Lawrence, Edgar, Clark, Crawford, Wayne, Jasper, Cumberland, Richland, Effingham, Clay, Fayette, Marion, Shelby, Moultrie, Jefferson, Christian, Bond, Gallatin, Hardin, Pope, Hamilton, Johnson, Massac, Saline, and Franklin) have a combined population of roughly 492,061. If these 28 counties were traded for Lake County it wouldn’t change the population level of the two states and thus would not affect the amount of congressional seats or amount of electoral college votes. Missouri could also do this by trading St. Louis for many Illinois counties although this may require for a corridor remain that connects northern Illinois to St. Louis.
What do you think of such an arrangement?
We promoted that in 2018 or 2019 but Lake County Indiana was unified in opposition to the idea. Although it is a Dem area, the Dems there moved from Illinois for the lower taxes, lower cost of living, and gun rights. They still vote Dem because of their ethnicities. A trade would be awesome, but no counties want to join Illinois, so it’s a political dead end.
I absolutely love seeing stuff like this. It would be much easier for secession if it were up to entire states and not municipalities who, may or may not, have to go through with the two step process of first forming a new state or joining another than second total secession from the federal government.
So far Greater Idaho is the leading movement in moving states boundaries. But the sad reality is none of these movements have really taken off past a flash in the local new of focused states. Whether it be 2013 Northern Colorado, 2019 Vexit, 2020 New Nevada and New California, or whatever is happening in Minnesota right now.
I do guess the good news being that they are becoming more frequent. But in the long run, while were making states more right and more left, further drawing the border between the two vastly different Americas, there is no decisive movement on actual secession just yet. We still won’t know which states would actually secede given the chance. This should be the main focus while moving the boundaries should be in our peripherals.
Whatever the case, I have completely ignored all local politics, or have very little care what happens to my very blue state, and have only focused on the politics on the states that I would like see secede (mainly the south, the west and Alaska) and this is what I believe we should all be doing this. As well as move to these states, start up like minded communities and participate in local elections. Those of us in bluer states, with right wing mindsets, need to move to the red states and those in the redder states, with liberal mindsets, can come and take my place.
Statistically I don’t see any of this favorably, but with a righteous moral compass and God on our side, we can do this.
In 1965 Malaysia expelled Singapore. It would seem that this sort of thing may be in order for several states, otherwise the entire population of the state is enslaved by urban political machines that are corrupt.
I’m in Will County…I’m doomed.
Lake county needs to secede to Wisconsin. Please for the love of Cheese, we need to get the fuck away from Illinois politicians (retards)