Illinois residents seeking to leave their state without moving are often dismissed as unrealistic, but there’s no question that they’re on a roll.

Voters in seven Illinois counties approved last week the Illinois Separation Referendum, a non-binding advisory measure directing county boards to explore the idea of splitting from Cook County — home of Chicago — by dividing the state in two.

The proposal also kept up its winning streak. In four years, the measure has passed in 33 of the 33 counties where it has appeared on the ballot, or nearly a third of the state’s 102 counties, said Loret Newlin, coordinator/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 have for years advanced a progressive 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,” said Ms. Newlin. “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, but it’s not the only one. It’s not even the only one in Illinois.

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

New Illinois now 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, New Illinois chairman of the board.

“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,” said Ms. Merritt. “Our vision is of a state where we don’t have a tyrannical government, but a government that is going to protect our constitutional rights.”

Their efforts recently landed on the radar of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said in May he was “disappointed” after 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,” said Mr. Pritzker, a Democrat. “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,” said Ms. Merritt. “Anybody wants to stay in Old Illinois, they’re welcome to.”

The movement reflects the ongoing 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 versus population.

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

“That’s why it’s not just happening here,” said Ms. Merritt. “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.”

Splitting a state in two can be done under the U.S. Constitution, but the last time it happened was 1863, when West Virginia broke off 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 red states like 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 moving Eastern Oregon into Idaho by redrawing the state line.

Ms. Newlin said she doubted the border-redo strategy would work in Illinois, for one reason: Most states would recoil from taking on a percentage of the state’s hefty debt burden, estimated by the U.S. Debt Clock at $156 billion.

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

Supporters believe that the two-state solution could help solve Chicago’s budgetary woes and crushing debt burden, while 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 JPMorgan’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 she grew up on 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.”

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.