SPRINGFIELD — Democrats moved a proposal for new legislative district maps to the House floor Tuesday, but not without opposition from reform groups and associations representing Hispanics.

The reform groups say they want more time to review any map before it is approved by the Legislature. And Hispanic groups, including the Illinois Latino Agenda and the Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund, said they think the map should include more districts that could elect Hispanic candidates.

On a 6-5 partisan roll call, the House Redistricting Committee adopted the redistricting maps that Democrats first made public last Friday.

But Republicans say they expect the maps to be amended in the next few days.

Democrats say they hope to pass the new map before the Legislature's scheduled adjournment on May 31.

And lawmakers still haven't unveiled an Illinois congressional map proposal.

Much of a joint hearing Tuesday with the Senate and House redistricting committees was taken up with testimony from American University Professor Allan Lichtman, who said he had been retained by Illinois Democrats, at a cost of $400 an hour, to advise them on the legal intricacies of redistricting.

Lichtman's work is expected to form the foundation of the Democrats' defense of their work should there be a lawsuit over the new district map, as is anticipated.

Lichtman said African Americans make up about 14 percent of Illinois' voting age population, and that the map proposal includes 16 majority African American House districts and eight majority African American Senate districts. All are in the Chicago area.

There are 11 majority Latino House districts and five majority Latino Senate districts, he said.

In addition, he said several districts have enough African American or Latino population that they could elect a minority.

None of those districts would appear to be in East Central Illinois, however.

The new 103rd House District, which takes in almost all of Champaign-Urbana, is 14.62 percent African American, 14.32 percent Asian and 6.07 percent Hispanic, according to demographic information provided by Democrats.

The new 104th District, which includes Danville, Rantoul and suburban parts of Champaign, is more than 80 percent white.

MALDEF officials said the Democrats' map "does not create a sufficient number of Latino opportunity districts" to meet the federal Voting Rights Act.

And former Sen. Miguel del Valle of Chicago said the proposed map "worries me quite a bit" because the presumed Hispanic districts include many undocumented residents who cannot vote.

"Given that the Hispanic community has a large number of individuals who are not eligible to register to vote — they are voting age but because they are permanent residents or they are undocumented they are not eligible to vote, and so while they are counted in the census the fact of the matter is that they cannot participate — I ask you to take the next few days to amend this proposal and improve the percentages in these districts," he said.

Meanwhile, Jocelyn Woodards of the Illinois Campaign for Accountable Redistricting, a coalition of reform groups, urged lawmakers to slow down the process.

"From Mendota to Galesburg, Illinois residents should be provided with ample time to review and digest what impact the proposed maps would have on their neighborhoods and communities," Woodards said. "We feel that it is critically important that the public be given a realistic opportuinity to review and analyze that actual maps before they are voted on. After all the maps you pass will affect citizens' lives for the next decade."

Not everyone was unhappy with the proposed map.

Dennis Fisher and Don Fesperman of Shelby County said they were glad to see that their county is no longer divided into four House districts and three Senate districts.

Under the new map, Shelby County is in the 102nd House District and the 51st Senate District, both of which also include parts of Champaign and Vermilion counties.

"To that I say thank you for a job well done," said Fisher.

"All we would respectfully ask is that if there are any amendments you leave our county as it already is," added Fesperman.

Infobox: To see the current and learn more about redistricting process, see http://www.ilhousedems.com/redistricting/