sooner this week , NASAannouncedthat cosmonaut Kate Rubins had formally cast her vote from a improvised ballot booth aboard theInternational Space Station . As much as we ’d like to believe her ballot came back to Earth in a diminutive rocket , the actual transmission was much more terrestrial . essentially , it got send to her county clerk as a PDF .
As NASAexplains , voting from space set out the same way as vote afield . Astronauts , like military members and other American citizens living overseas , must first submit a Federal Postcard app ( FPCA ) to request anabsentee voting . Once approved , they can blast off knowing that their voting will soon follow .
After the astronaut ’s county shop clerk completes a practice around with folk music at the Johnson Space Center in Houston , they can start the substantial voting summons . The astronaut will then take in two electronic document : a password - protect ballot send by the Space Center ’s mission control substance , and an email with the password sent by the county shop assistant . The astronaut then “ downlinks ” ( sendsvia satellite signal ) their filled - out ballot back to the Space Center attendants , who forward it to the county clerk . Since the clerk needs a watchword to enter the ballot , they ’re the only other soul who sees the spaceman ’s reply . Then , as NPRreports , they copy the votes onto a veritable paper ballot and posit it with the ease of them .
Though Americans have been visiting quad for more than half a century , the early jaunts were n’t long enough to necessitate setting up a voting organization from orbit . That changed in 1996 , when John Blaha missed out on voting in the worldwide election because his spaceflight to Russia ’s infinite station Mirbeganin September — before absentee elector received their ballot — and he did n’t return until January 1997 . So , asThe Washington Postreports , NASA officials collaborated with Texas government activity officials to evanesce a law allowing astronaut to couch their ballot from space . In the fall of 1997 , David Wolf became the first astronaut to posit his vote from a space station . The jurisprudence is specific to Texas because most active astronauts reside there , butNASAhassaidthat the cognitive operation can be done from other states if need be .
