SPRINGFIELD – Illinois will return to a later primary election in March 2012.

Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation (SB 355) Wednesday that moves the primary from the first Tuesday in February back to the third Tuesday in March. Democrats in the Legislature moved the primary date in 2007 in an attempt to give then-presidential candidate Barack Obama an early election boost.

"Having the general primary election in March will increase voter turnout and encourage people to have a greater voice in the election process, which is what democracy is all about," Quinn said.

Many politicians and election officials blamed the early primary for dismal voter turnouts this spring. In Champaign County, for example, only 19 percent of registered voters went to the polls.

Since 1970 Illinois had held its primary in late March. Before that time the primary was held in either mid-April or early June.

Sen. Dale Righter, R-Charleston, who appeared with Quinn on Wednesday at a press conference hailing the signing of the later-primary bill, said the March date "is not a great improvement, but it is an improvement."

He said he wanted a late May primary. A date that late still would allow electors chosen at the primary to qualify for the national political conventions, Righter said.

"I wanted it later, but my first priority was to get it out of February," he said. "I was one of the few lawmakers to vote against the early primary in 2007. We were making the change for one person and one party, and I thought that was abhorrent."

One lawmaker, Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, suggested that even the late March primary could be troublesome.

"We may have snow and we may have weather, but we hope more people exercise the right to vote," she said.

In 2012, the primary will be held March 20 rather than Feb. 7.