Four NASA astronauts vote from space with absentee ballots

Washington DC, United States

Astronauts in space are also eligible to vote in the US presidential election, even while they are away from Earth.

During a talk with students at Tennessee Tech University via a virtual interaction, Astronaut Butch Wilmore told students how he voted early from space, AP reported.

“I got my ballot in and made sure that mine got counted,” he said. 

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How do astronauts vote from space?

Wilmore, one of the four astronauts, requested an absentee ballot to vote from space.

A law passed in 1997 in Texas, where NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) is located, allows astronauts in a space flight to cast their ballot during the early voting period and on election day. This law was passed after American astronauts began going on long space missions that lasted months.

According to NASA, the votes by astronauts are transmitted through the agency’s Near Space Network, which consists of satellites that orbit Earth.

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Once the astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) fill out their election ballots, they are encrypted and uploaded to the onboard computer. They are then sent to NASA’s facility on Earth.

The ballots are then transmitted to the Mission Control Center at NASA's JSC, from where they are delivered to the astronauts’ respective counties electronically for filing. 

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According to NASA, the ballots are “encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk” to ensure the vote’s integrity. 

Through this process, NASA astronauts including Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are stuck at the ISS since June, can vote in the US presidential elections.

(With inputs from agencies)