From TIME · Callum Sutherland · · 1m 10s
Astronauts vote from space in midterm elections
Three American astronauts at the International Space Station cast absentee ballots ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections using encrypted electronic forms.
In brief
Three American astronauts at the International Space Station cast absentee ballots ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections using encrypted electronic forms. Three astronauts at the ISS voted in Tuesday's midterms using encrypted electronic ballots, continuing a practice that began in nineteen ninety-seven. Originally…
Three astronauts vote from orbit
Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney cast ballots at the International Space Station ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections using electronic forms.
How voting works in space
Astronauts fill out electronic ballots on computers aboard the ISS. The encrypted document flows through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to Mission Control in Houston, then to the county clerk.
Menon describes his voting booth
Menon said his room "doubles as a voting booth" and contains his computer where he filled out an electronic form and sent it to Harris County, home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
“the privilege of being able to vote here as well, just like you on the ground”
Space voting began in nineteen ninety-seven
American astronauts have voted from space since the Texas Legislature passed a bill allowing NASA astronauts to cast ballots from orbit. David Wolf was the first, voting from the Mir Space Station.
“I voted alone up in space, very alone, the only English speaker up there, and it was nice to have an English ballot, something from America”
At a glance
Three astronauts at the ISS voted in Tuesday's midterms using encrypted electronic ballots, continuing a practice that began in nineteen ninety-seven.
