The International Space Station has a permanent crew that rotates every few months, and most NASA astronauts live in Houston, Texas, between missions. That meant that for a long time, astronauts who were in space during an election couldn’t vote.
In 1997, Texas passed a law specifically for astronauts. It allows them to vote in elections via a secure electronic ballot, which is sent up to the Space Station, filled out by the astronaut, and beamed back down to the appropriate county clerk in Texas. The first astronaut to vote from space was David Wolf later that year, casting his ballot from the Russian space station Mir.
The system has been used many times since. Astronaut Kate Rubins voted from the ISS in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Crew members hang a “ISS Vote Booth” sign on their crew quarters when filling out the secure form, just for fun. It’s a small touch of normal life happening in the most extreme workplace anyone has.
