Giving new meaning to the “absentee ballot”, an American astronaut has voted from abroad — casting his ballot from orbit.
NASA said Monday that astronaut Shane Kimbrough filed his ballot from the International Space Station sometime in the past few days.
Before launching in October, Kimbrough has said that voting was going to be special, because he’d be able to say, “I voted from space.”
According to a Tumblr blog post by NASA, the voting process begins a year before launch, with astronauts choosing which state and national elections they wish to vote in. Six months before the election, they receive the same absentee ballot request as any other voter who will not be in the United States during the election.
According to news reports, Kimbrough sent his ballot through a secure electronic email.
He, like most NASA astronauts, votes in Houston, Texas. They were only granted the ability to vote from space in 1997. David Wolf was the first astronaut to do so, voting that year from the Russian Mir space station.
Another astronaut, Kate Rubins, sent her absentee ballot from space for this election before returning to Earth a week ago.
With files from the Canadian Press