(MCT) — CHICAGO — President Barack Obama on Thursday became the first sitting president to vote early in person, traveling to Chicago’s South Side just long enough to cast a ballot in a carefully orchestrated event aimed squarely at voters beyond Illinois’ borders.

After bantering about his gray hair with poll workers at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Bronzeville, Obama talked up the benefits of voting early, a case he has been trying to hammer home in recent days to supporters in a handful of swing states.