2012 US Presidential Election - Early Voting

Early Voting means casting vote before the Election Day either by mail or in person. The time and date of early voting varies from State to State.

Barack Obama, who cast his vote through early voting along with First Lady Michelle Obama, led from the front as he became the first U.S. President to do so.
Barack Obama created history when he went to a polling booth in his home town of Chicago to cast his vote on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, over 12 days ahead of the November 6,2012 elections, thus becoming the first U.S. President to vote early.
Barack Obama flew in from Richmond in Virginia to cast his vote at the Martin Luther King Community Center in his home town of Chicago.

According to latest figured complied by the U.S. Election Project of the George Mason University, more than 30.5 million voters had already cast their ballots.

Michael P. McDonald, an associate professor at the university, has projected that some 35 per cent of the total eligible electorates will case early voting this year. 

In some States like Florida, more than half of the voters will have already cast their votes. In Florida, more than 4.5 million people had already cast their votes. 

The number was high in several other States as well with Colorado (1.7 million), Georgia (1.8 million), Iowa (640,000), North Carolina (2.7 million), Ohio (1.6 million), Oregon (1.1 million), Tennessee (1.45 million) and Texas (3.4 million), according to figures released by the project.

Eligible Voters

Any U.S. citizen above the age of 18 is eligible to vote in the U.S. general elections. According to the project, in 2012 an estimated 219 million people are eligible to cast their votes. 

Ineligible Voters

Those in prison, probation or in parole are debarred from voting.  An estimated 3.2 million — though having attained the voting age — are not eligible to vote because either they are in prison (1.6 million) or are on probation (1.32 million) or are on parole (about 630,000)