Obama Becomes First Sitting U.S. President To Vote Early
By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 25, 2012 10:00PM
President Barack Obama made history Thursday afternoon by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to cast an early ballot in a presidential election.
Obama landed at O'Hare International Airport around 3:40 Central time and was transported by Marine One to Soldier Field, then by car to an early polling precinct at the Martin Luther King Community Center, near his home in the Kenwood neighborhood on the city's South side. He arrived at 4:15 p.m. and joked when he presented identification, "Ignore the fact that there's no gray hair in that picture."
He then made a pitch for early voting.
“For all of you who have not yet early voted, I just want everybody to see what an incredibly efficient process this was thanks to the outstanding folks who are at this particular polling place. Obviously folks in Illinois can take advantage of this. But all across the country we’re seeing a lot of early voting. It means you don’t have to figure out whether you need to take time off work, figure out how to pick up the kids and still cast a ballot. If something happens on election day you will have already taken care of it. If it’s bad weather you won’t get wet. Or in Chicago, snowy. But this was really convenient. I can’t tell you who I voted for. But I very much appreciate everybody here. It’s good to be home back in the neighborhood.”
The president hopes to encourage voters across the country to take advantage of early voting. Early voting opened in Illinois Monday and election officials in Cook County are already reporting a record turnout. They're hoping a quarter of the total votes cast are the result of early voting.
Obama's arrival in Chicago to cast his ballot is the highlight of a whirlwind two days of travel. On Wednesday he traveled 5,500 miles campaigning and began Thursday traveling from Las Vegas to Tampa to stay on the campaign trail.