Voting From Space: American Astronauts Cast Ballots In OrbitTariq Malik - SPACE.com Managing Editor
SPACE.com – Tue Nov 2, 10:45 am ET
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Three American astronauts flying on the International Space Station may be far from home, but they're not left out of today's Election Day fervor. They still get to vote from space.
NASA's astronauts live in or around Houston and the three Americans on the space station – U.S. Army Col. Douglas Wheelock, physicist Shannon Walker and Navy Capt. Scott Kelly – have had the option to vote for their local county elections from 220 miles (354 km) above Earth.
To help space station crewmembers stay involved with their local politics, NASA has made arrangements with county officials that allow astronauts to vote from space. The ballots are prepared by county officials and beamed up from Mission Control.
"I voted on Sunday through an electronic e-mail system," Kelly told reporters via a video link today (Nov. 2). "I think Texas actually passed a law where we could vote from space, and it felt like an honor and privilege to exercise our rights as U.S. citizens from the International Space Station."
American astronauts have been able to vote from space since 1997 due to a Texas law passed to grant them the ability. The first American to vote from space was astronaut David Wolf, who was living on Russia's Mir Space Station at election time in 1997.
In order to give the astronauts time to vote when their busy schedules allow, the ballots for today's election have been available for the station crew since last week.
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Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20101102/sc_space/votingfromspaceamericanastronautscastballotsinorbitI guess they don't have to worry about rightwing poll monitors up there...
:D
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