Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to cast his vote before the Election Day in the presidential polls when he voted in his home town Chicago Thursday.

Obama, who has been promoting the early voting in the presidential elections, flew to Chicago to cast his vote at the Martin Luther King Community Center, 12 days ahead of the actual elections.

Entering the voting room, the President greeted everybody and said it was exciting to vote early, the Associated Press reported.

"This is the first time a president ever going to be early voting," he said while waiting. "That's pretty exciting," Obama said.   

Obama responded to the queries of the poll workers and gave his driving license for identification purpose. He chatted with the poll workers and asked them whether they were getting a lot of early voters to which the polling staff answered in the affirmative, the AFP reported.

The president took a few minutes to complete the voting process after which he posed for photos with the poll workers. He jokingly told a poll worker never to ignore the wife’s call when the latter disconnected a call which came while he was helping the president in the voting process.

Several U.S. states allow early balloting and Obama’s campaign has been encouraging the people to vote early. The recent polls indicate that Obama is leading over his Republican rival Mitt Romney. In the 2008 presidential elections, Obama garnered the majority of votes from the early voters.  

First lady Michelle Obama voted Oct. 16 and tweeted about it.

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