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Obama becomes the first US President to vote early
AGENCIES | Washington, October 26, 2012 15:04
Tags : US Presidential elections | Mitt Romney | Barack Obama |
Tags : US Presidential elections | Mitt Romney | Barack Obama |
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Barack Obama scripted history when he cast his ballot 12 days ahead of the November 6 polls, becoming the first sitting US President to vote early in the election. He has described this election as an "extremely tight" race between him and his Republican rival Mitt Romney.
Amidst his hectic electioneering schedule, 51-year-old Obama flew in from Richmond in Virginia to cast his vote at the Martin Luther King Community Center in his home town in Chicago on Thursday.
As Obama entered the polling booth, he greeted everybody and expressed his excitement at voting early.
"This is the first time a President is ever going to be voting early," he said. "That's pretty exciting."
After a woman election official asked for his driver's license for identification purposes, he said: "Oh, you are right" and took out his driver's license from his pocket. "Now ignore the fact that there's no grey hair in that picture," he said in a lighter vein.
Following this, the election official asked him a question about paperwork, whether it was the right form he had, according to a White House pool report.
"I assume it is," he replied. "I hope so. If not, this will be really embarrassing."
While waiting, he asked if they had been getting a lot of early voters and was told they were. "It makes such a difference," he said. Then he remarked, "I'm just glad I renewed my driver's license."
According to the pool report, the woman, who took his license, held it up and gave it the sort of skeptical examination a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer would.
Obama laughed. "Did you see that?" he said, then mimicked her looking over the license.
Thereafter, Obama was brought over to one of the voting stations. It took him about three or four minutes to go through the apparently long ballot, including down-ballot races.
Then a poll worker helped him through the process of finalising the vote, which seemed involved and took a couple more minutes. During this process, the poll worker's phone rang, much to his embarrassment.
"Is that your wife?" Obama asked. No, he said, "That's my wife," pointing to a woman across the room.
"I just wanted to make sure," Obama said. "Always take that phone call," he added.
The other voters, no longer even pretending to work on their ballots, recorded the scene with their smart phones. When he was done, Obama asked, "I voted?" The poll worker said, "Yes, sir."
Obama gave his testimonial to early voting, then asked if it was okay to take a picture with all the poll workers. "I don't want to break any laws in front of these many cameramen," he said. The local election official said it was okay and pictures were taken.
Earlier in the day, Obama in an email to his supporterssaid that he was going to vote early. "This afternoon, I am casting my ballot in my hometown of Chicago. I am told I will be the first sitting President to take advantage of early voting," he said.
"Look, this race is extremely tight. It's going to come down to which side can more effectively turn out the vote in these final days, and early vote is a huge part of that.
"Whether people get out to vote this year, in this election, is even more critical than the last time around. So this is serious, and I am going to need your help if we want to win," said Obama who, according to snap polls, won two of the three high-stake presidential debates against his Republican challenger Romney.
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