Seven Illinois Counties Vote to Explore a New State Apart From Cook County

Voters in at least seven Illinois counties approved advisory questions Tuesday asking their county boards to explore separating from Cook County to form a new state, according to unofficial results from county clerks and local news reports.

Five more counties voted on a separation question, but their results had not been posted by Wednesday afternoon.

Where It Passed

In Monroe County, the question passed 9,642 to 5,291, or 64.6 percent, with all 25 precincts counted, according to the county clerk’s unofficial results.

In Gallatin County, it passed 1,310 to 563, or 69.9 percent, with all 11 precincts counted, according to the county’s unofficial summary report.

In Coles County, it drew 9,963 yes votes to 5,935 no votes, or 62.7 percent, in preliminary results, the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier reported.

In Macoupin County, 67.7 percent voted yes with all precincts reporting, RiverBender.com reported.

Henderson County voters approved it with 73 percent, Warren County with 68 percent and McDonough County with 57 percent, Tri States Public Radio reported.

Hamilton, Saline, Washington and Piatt counties also voted on the question. Ford County voted on a separate advisory question asking the General Assembly to separate Chicago and Cook County from the rest of the state. None of the five had posted results the Texian Partisan could confirm by Wednesday afternoon.

What the Question Asks

The questions are advisory. They change no law and move no boundary.

Most counties used the standard text written by the group Illinois Separation. In Macoupin County it read: “Shall the board of Macoupin 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?”

Piatt and Hamilton counties asked whether their boards should discuss forming a new state with the remaining 101 counties, as the Texian Partisan reported before the vote.

The Record

Thirty-three counties voted on the question from 2020 through 2024, and all 33 passed it, NBC Chicago reported. Tuesday’s results bring the total to at least 40 of Illinois’s 102 counties.

Separation would need far more than county votes. Under Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, a new state cannot be formed from an existing one without the consent of that state’s legislature and of Congress.

A Different Question in Texas

The Illinois counties are asking to leave one state and form another inside the union. Texas faces a different question. The Texas Independence Referendum Act, model legislation from the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), would put Texas independence to a statewide vote of Texans.

In Illinois, county after county keeps answering a question that has never gone to a statewide vote. The Texas bill would put its question to every Texan at once.