If you take place to be off Earth when an election rolls around, you can still cast your tally.
The U.S. midterm elections are occurring today (Nov. 8), and the 3 Americans presently living aboard the International Space Station (ISS)– NASA astronauts Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann and Frank Rubio– have adequate chance to get involved.
NASA’s Kate Rubins discussed how off-Earth ballot is performed in a NASA video Q&A(opens in brand-new tab), which was published in November 2020, while she was living aboard the orbiting laboratory.
” It’s really quite comparable to the procedure of ballot by absentee tally from house,” she stated in the video, which commemorated the 20 th anniversary of continued human existence on the ISS.
Before she introduced towards the station, Rubins submitted a Federal Postcard Application(opens in brand-new tab)(FPCA). The FPCA resembles the absentee tally application numerous other U.S. people complete however is utilized particularly for individuals who are overseas throughout an election, such as military members and their households– however sometimes, depending upon the spaceport station’s orbit, astronauts on the ISS aren’t technically overseas.
Video: How to vote from area: NASA astronaut describes how she did it(opens in brand-new tab)
Most astronauts who vote while in area select to vote as Texas homeowners due to the fact that they relocate to Houston for training prior to their objective starts, according to NASA(opens in brand-new tab) A 1997 state law passed in Texas permits legal ballot from area, with an absentee tally system set for astronauts to vote with the address “low Earth orbit.”
Before an astronaut can vote, NASA needs to check that the tally can be completed. The county clerk sends out a test tally to NASA’s Johnson Space Center(opens in brand-new tab) in Houston and a spaceport station training computer system tests whether somebody has the ability to fill the tally out and send it back to the clerk.
If the tally passes the test, the genuine tally is encrypted and sent out to the astronaut on the ISS. The clerk likewise sends out qualifications particular to the ballot team member for security in opening the tally. The astronaut then fills it out digitally and sends it by e-mail pull back to the county clerk to tape the vote. The clerk likewise has a password to guarantee they’re the only individual who can open the e-mail.
Like those people in the world, a ballot astronaut need to send out in their vote by 7 p.m. Central Time on election day for the vote