Indiana lawmakers are moving forward with the initial stages of a bill that would absorb several counties in Illinois where voters no longer feel represented by their state government. 

On Monday, a committee in the Indiana House voted 11-1 to approve Indiana House Bill 1008, which would create a five-member commission to explore the idea of adjusting the state’s border with Illinois to incorporate several counties that have voted to secede from the Prairie State in recent years.

The idea for absorbing parts of Illinois into Indiana came after November when seven counties voted to secede from the state and become America’s 51st state. Since 2020, 33 out of 102 counties have voted in favor of splitting up the state. 

The author of the bill, Speaker Todd Huston of the Indiana House, argues that instead of those nearly three dozen counties forming a new state, they should become part of Indiana. In testimony on Monday, Mr. Huston said roughly 100,000 people have moved to Indiana from Illinois since the Covid pandemic. 

“We don’t want to see our neighbors to the west languish. Ultimately, their success or failure affects our own success or failure,” Mr. Huston said. “To the Illinois counties and residents feeling unheard and unrepresented, we hear you, and we’d like to invite you to come back home again to Indiana.”

A Democratic state lawmaker, Ragen Hatcher, said she voted for the bill as she expressed optimism that the legislation would let the more liberal Lake County leave Indiana to become part of Illinois. 

“I hope that possibly this is a two-way street,” Ms. Hatcher said. “Maybe this is a start for everyone.”

The chairwoman of a group that has been influential in the secession push, New Illinois, G.H. Merritt, told Indiana lawmakers on Monday, “Our biggest grievance is that we are not represented. We don’t have government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our governor accuses us of wanting to kick Chicago out of Illinois. Not so, we want to kick ourselves out of Illinois.”

Ms. Merritt insists the divide is not partisan but focused on differences between urban and rural lifestyles. She says the counties that want to leave have more in common with Indiana than Chicago. 

Still, she said her organization’s ultimate goal is the creation of a new state.

In the early 1800s, what is now the state of Illinois used to be part of the Indiana Territory. However, the Illinois Territory was separated off in 1809.

The idea of various counties breaking away from states is not a new concept in America. In 2018, an initiative to break up California into three different states received enough signatures to make it onto the ballot in that year’s election. However, the California Supreme Court took the initiative off the ballot, citing “significant questions” about “the proposition’s validity.”

Earlier this month, a state representative in Oregon introduced a measure to explore the impact of transferring 13 conservative counties in the eastern part of the state to Idaho. 

In American history, there is some precedent for the breaking up of states. However, it has not happened since the Civil War when Virginia voted to secede from the Union. The western counties of the state disagreed with the decision and decided to form their own state government. In 1863, West Virginia was admitted as a state after it added the abolition of slavery to its constitution. 

For the Indiana scheme to succeed, the bill would have to be approved by both chambers of the Indiana and Illinois legislatures. A commission would then draft a plan for the changing of the borders, which the legislatures would have to agree to. And Congress would have to approve of the plan. 

Even if the bill is approved by Indiana, leaders in Illinois seem unlikely to support the plan. 

The attorney general of Illinois, Kwame Raoul, said in November, “It is my opinion that non-home-rule counties… do not have the authority to secede from the state of Illinois and join another state. Accordingly, any referendum on the issue of county secession would have no binding legal effect.”

In January, Governor Pritzker said, “It’s a stunt. It’s not going to happen.”

“But I’ll just say that Indiana is a low-wage state that doesn’t protect workers, a state that does not provide health care for people in need, and so I don’t think it’s very attractive for anybody in Illinois,” he said.

The full Indiana House is yet to schedule a vote on the bill.