President Obama, his family and his campaign staff will watch the election returns in his hometown of Chicago Nov. 6, and the election watch gathering is expected to be held in the lakefront convention center, McCormick Place, according to people familiar with the campaign's planning.

The formal arrangements with the convention center have not been inked.

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This is the lakefront site where Chicago hosted the NATO summit earlier this year and it is a quick commute to the president's home in Hyde Park/Kenwood on Chicago's South Side.

Campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters earlier this month that the president had no intention of trying to repeat the outdoor spectacle in Grant Park where the Obamas celebrated his election in 2008.