WATCH: How some in rural America are pushing to separate from their states’ urban centers

Illinois residents hoping to leave their state without moving are often dismissed as unrealistic, but they are undoubtedly on a roll.

Voters in seven Illinois counties approved the Illinois Separation Referendum, a nonbinding advisory measure directing county boards to explore the idea of splitting from Cook County, home of Chicago, by dividing the state into two.

In four years, the measure has passed in 33 of the 33 counties where it has appeared on the ballot, or nearly one-third of the state’s 102 counties, said Loret Newlin, coordinator and director of the Illinois Separation Referendum.

“We want to form a separate state without Cook County or anybody else who doesn’t want to come with us. That’s part of what the referendum is assessing. It’s an assessment tool,” Ms. Newlin told The Washington Times. “Rather than just assume everyone wants to do this, we’re asking the people.”

The long-term goal is to gain elected representation by breaking free of Cook County, whose Democratic representatives rule the state legislature and for years have advanced a liberal agenda at odds with the more rural, conservative denizens of downstate Illinois.

“Downstate is very disenfranchised. Look at the election map. It looks like we’re a blue state. We are not a blue state,” Ms. Newlin said. “We’re a red state with a few pockets of blue, but they’re high population.”

Just don’t call them secessionists. “We are not a secession movement,” she said. “What we’re trying to do does not involve separating from the union.”

Thanks to its ballot wins, Illinois Separation has emerged as one of the more prominent grassroots movements seeking to redraw the U.S. map — and it’s not the only one in Illinois.

Also on the rise is New Illinois, which shares Illinois Separation’s goal of creating a state apart from Cook County but has focused on building infrastructure rather than passing ballot measures.

New Illinois has 33 committees representing 43 counties. The group also has panels focused on assessing the economic picture, drafting a new state constitution and researching legal issues, said G.H. Merritt, chairman of the New Illinois movement.

“Our mission is to educate Illinoisans about their right under the U.S. Constitution to pursue the formation of a new state separate from the state of Illinois,” Ms. Merritt said. “Our vision is of a state where we don’t have a tyrannical government, but a government that will protect our constitutional rights.”

Their efforts recently landed on the radar of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat who said in May he was “disappointed” that the Madison County Board referred the question to the ballot. The measure won with 56% of the vote.

“The idea that someplace in Illinois wants to kick out another place in Illinois should not be on the ballot,” Mr. Pritzker said. “It shouldn’t be something that’s part of the lexicon and discussion of politicians. We’re one state.”

Separation advocates took exception to his framing of the issue.

“We are not trying to kick anybody out of the state of Illinois except ourselves. We’re trying to kick ourselves out so we can form a new state,” Ms. Merritt said. “Anybody wants to stay in Old Illinois, they’re welcome to.”

The movement reflects the legacy of the 1964 Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. Sims, the “one person, one vote” ruling that eliminated the practice of state senates being organized by county instead of population.

The result was that cities in states with at least one major urban area controlled the majorities in both houses of the legislature, exacerbating the urban-rural divide.

“That’s why it’s not just happening here,” Ms. Merritt said. “It’s happening in California, in Oregon, in Colorado, in New York, in Minnesota. It’s the same thing. You have masses of people without a voice. And if you don’t have a voice, you’re not giving your consent.”

The U.S. Constitution allows for splitting a state into two, but the last time it happened was in 1863, when West Virginia split from Virginia. Any such proposal would need the approval of the state legislature and Congress.

Another Illinois movement, Downstate Illinois Secession, seeks to move the state border to allow southern counties to join neighboring conservative states such as Kentucky or Missouri.

The group’s aim is similar to that of Greater Idaho, which has passed ballot questions in 13 Oregon counties directing county commissions to explore redrawing the state line to move eastern Oregon into Idaho.

Ms. Newlin doubted the redrawn border strategy would work in Illinois for one reason: Most states would recoil from taking on a percentage of the hefty debt burden, which the U.S. Debt Clock estimates at $156 billion.

“We’re over our heads in debt, and nobody wants us,” she said.

Supporters say the two-state solution could help solve Chicago’s budgetary woes and crushing debt burden. Skeptics insist that downstate Illinois would be worse off without Chicago’s economic engine.

Ms. Merritt disagreed. “You’ll hear people say, ‘Without Chicago, you’re going to be driving on dirt roads and turn into Mississippi,’ but if you look at J.P. Morgan’s rankings, Mississippi is in a lot better financial health than Illinois,” she said.

John Shaw, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said he views the separation votes as “political theater that will have no real-world impact — apart from making the point that many people in downstate Illinois believe that all political power in Illinois is concentrated in the Greater Chicago area.”

“They further believe that rapacious political leaders in Chicago and its suburbs dominate state government and divert resources from downstate Illinois to Chicago,” Mr. Shaw said. “Several studies have disproved this claim, but many of the supporters of separation are unpersuaded by facts or evidence. They are driven by anger, fear and frustration — at Washington and Springfield.”

Ms. Newlin, who lives on the 40-acre farm where she grew up in Jasper County, refuses to be discouraged by the naysayers.

“People say this new state will never happen. Never say ‘never’ because we don’t know what is going to happen in 10 to 40 years,” she said. “Political landscapes can change.”