Illinois State Representatives Bill Mitchell and Adam Brown have introduced a bill to divide Illinois into two states, jettisoning Chicago. Their reasoning is that Chicago’s politics are wholly different from that of the rest of the state, and it’s time to free downstate Illinois from its burden.
As a stranger in a strange land, I can understand the sentiment. But I’d like to make a slightly more modest proposal: Illinois should establish a state electoral college.
This idea comes from one of my friends, and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes, because federalism runs deep. The U.S. electoral college was established in the Presidential race to retain states’ rights, and an Illinois electoral college would achieve the same goal, for counties.
Each county could be assigned a number of delegates proportional to its citizens. Then, in a state-wide election, votes would be tallied by county as usual, but the candidate with the most votes in that county would secure its delegates. These delegates would assemble to vote, and their decision would be the state’s choice.
A state electoral college has two significant advantages over our current system. First, it would improve the representation by county. Currently, less densely populated counties’ voices are drowned in the cacophony from Chicago. If the President was elected by popular vote totals instead of by the electoral college, no candidate would spend much time outside of population epicenters, unless it was a photo-op to reassure smalltown voters they still mattered. This is what is currently happening on the state level. A state electoral college, by contrast, would scale back the power of any one county, and allow other counties to participate more reasonably in the political process. Knowing that these counties had more authority would require candidates to respond to the concerns of all their potential constituents, and craft policy that appealed to a broader base of people.
Secondly, it would make election fraud more difficult. Our current, centralized political environment has bred the Chicago Machine. If, however, political power was diffused to all Illinois counties, election fraud would be much more difficult logistically. Instead of only needing to sweep elections in one county to win an election, the delegates from multiple counties would need to be secured.
A state electoral college could decentralize political power in this state, and encourage people from across Illinois to participate in the political process. Because their county would again have a voice!