Obama casts early vote for Clinton during Chicago visit

The president, on a trip to Chicago to take part in a number of fund-raising events for his party, made an unexpected stop at a polling station, where he went down to the basement and cast his vote before a large crowd.

Obama previously cast early votes in the legislative elections of 2014 and while fighting for reelection in 2012, when he became the first American president to practice early voting.

On Friday, in front of the reporters surrounding him, Obama filled out his ballot, joked about his date of birth and that he might try "shaving just a couple of decades off".

"They can't see who I'm voting for can they?" Obama said, pretending to hide the screen of the electronic voting machine. Asked by reporters who won his vote, Obama wouldn't say, but he had made it clear earlier in the day that he hopes for Clinton to succeed him in the White House.

EPA

Obama hopes that Clinton will continue the reforms he has been unable to complete due to the Republican domination in Congress that has made it impossible to pass amendments, such as for immigration.

"I'm confident that we will have an incredibly capable successor in the White House, by the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton," Obama said elsewhere Friday at a fundraiser on behalf of Democratic lawmakers running for the House of Representatives, where surveys indicate a continued Republican majority following the November elections.

"We've still got a lot of work to do, and nobody knows that more than she does," Obama said. The president's early vote serves to promote the idea of early voting in general, a possibility offered by most states as voting by mail or personally at the polls.

The Clinton team announced Friday that Obama will campaign for Clinton next Tuesday in Greensboro, North Carolina, a key state where African-Americans support Clinton but have big abstention rates, which is why the ex-first lady has tried to push early voting.