{"id":4741,"date":"2017-04-06T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=4741"},"modified":"2017-04-06T09:36:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T07:36:28","slug":"astronauts-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/astronauts-voting","title":{"rendered":"How do Astronauts Vote from Space?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democracy is invaluable, which is why even astronauts orbiting\u00a0the earth are able to take part in elections.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cVote while you float\u201d <\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 1997, three years prior people living and working\u00a0on the International Space Station (ISS), American astronauts could already vote from orbit. The first American to vote from space was David Wolf, who was aboard the Russian MIR space station.<\/p>\n

This extraordinary voting process was only made possible by Texan legislators who have established a voting\u00a0procedure for astronauts. Most of them live in Texas and the Johnson Space Center, the hub of NASA’s human spaceflight program, is also in Houston.<\/p>\n

The Early Voting Process for American Astronauts <\/strong><\/h3>\n

The voting process started one year before the actual launch of cosmonauts can select in which elections they would like to participate. It is possible to vote in local, state and federal elections while they are in space.<\/p>\n

Six months before the election,\u00a0the astronauts receive the standardized Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request<\/em>. The address on the absentee ballot states low-Earth orbit<\/em> \u2013 the orbit distance where satellites revolve around the earth. Texan authorities create an electronic version of the ballot, which they beam up to space. The astronaut can securely fill out the ballot, which is in turn directly send back to earth. A designated proxy voter<\/a> decrypts the digital ballot and fills it out on the astronaut’s behalf.<\/p>\n

Earth or Orbit – Voting from anywhere\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 2004, the first NASA cosmonaut voted in a presidential election. Leroy Chiao was commanding Expedition 10 aboard the ISS at the time. He will\u00a0not be the last to early vote from space. Shane Kimbrough is currently stationed on the ISS and cast his vote in the 2016 presidential election.\u00a0It is just one small step for the astronaut but a big step for democracy…<\/p>\n

With the ISS gaining access to the internet in 2010, perhaps astronauts will be able to cast their ballots online via an online voting platform. Indeed, while POLYAS does not offer space elections just yet, being able to\u00a0vote from anywhere on earth<\/a> has also its advantages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democracy is invaluable, which is why even astronauts orbiting\u00a0the earth are able to take part in elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":4759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37],"tags":[1303,1297,1301,1299,1305],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Astronauts-voting.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Jaqueline Bargmann","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/j-bargmann"},"yoast_head":"\nVoting Methods: How do Astronauts Vote from Space?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Democracy is the most important commodity which means everyone should be able to vote. Even astronauts floating in space should be able to vote. 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