Two stranded American astronauts to cast absentee ballots from space

Here’s how the stranded American astronauts will vote from space

Starliner astronauts will cast encrypted ballots from the ISS
Most US astronauts live in Texas, which passed a vote-from-space law
Four other American ISS crew members will be back before election day

Updated: Sep 21, 2024 / 09:49 PM CDT

(NewsNation) — Call it the ultimate absentee ballot. Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the Boeing Starliner astronauts whose eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station will now stretch to at least seven months, will cast their ballots from space.

It’s nothing new for NASA, which has accommodated orbiting absentee ballots for 27 years. That’s when Texas passed a law permitting the practice. Since NASA is headquartered in Houston, nearly every American astronaut is a Texas resident.

The difference this time is that Wilmore and Williams didn’t expect to be in orbit on Election Day. Thruster and helium leak issues with their Starliner capsule, combined with the logistics of the regular ISS crew rotations, will keep the pair in space until February.

The Starliner capsule, minus its crew, returned to Earth earlier this month.

“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore said on a call with reporters earlier this month. “It’s a very important role that we play as citizens including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that.”

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins in 2020, pointing to the International Space Station’s “voting booth” where she cast her vote from space. (NASA photo)

Election officials in Harris County, Texas said they work with NASA to send astronauts a PDF with clickable boxes to make their choices. The PDF is password-protected to ensure a secret ballot.

The first astronaut to cast a vote in space was NASA’s David Wolf, while he was aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1997.

The four other American astronauts currently aboard the ISS won’t be voting from space. Tracy Caldwell Dyson is scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 23. Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps will return on Oct. 6.