Thanks to a 1997 bill passed in Texas, astronauts living and working onboard the International Space Station can vote from space via a secure electronic ballot. Right now they're 220 miles above Earth and orbiting at 17,500 miles per hour, and they'll still be able to have their say in the upcoming US Presidential election. Fantastic!
-
-
-
-
- richjm
- added this
- added October 28, 2008
- flag
-
And I thought overseas absentee voting was an impressive effort to fulfilling my civic duties. That's incredible!
VOTE.
-
!
-
VOTE OBAMA!!!!!
-
-
-
-
- LaMonica109
- 2 months ago
-
-
If NASA has figured out how to do secure online voting, can they expand on that to sort it out for the entire country? Can you imagine how much participation would go up if you could vote electronically?!
I had more fun voting this election than ever before - not only a historic choice for president, but a couple really important ballot measures in California as well. It was so exciting.
VOTE!!!!!
-
A vast vacuum of space won't separate these guys from their civic duty.
-
-
-
-
- InformedTexan
- 2 months ago
-
-
So wait we're not going to let cuba (who mind you, are effected by the Decisions made here in the US) vote but the astronauts can and they are not even on this planet.
-
Cleverly in space!
-
I'll bet their votes will be counted.
-
This story must feel bittersweet for all the people on Earth who are unable to vote because they have been purged from the rolls by partisan election officials.
-
-
-
-
- Bookshepherd
- 2 months ago
-
-
Now that's making every vote count. Hopefully everyone on the ground can make the same effort.
-
Golly, brings a whole new meaning to absentee voting. I wonder if before 1997 all astronauts had to forego their constitutional right to vote, or if the issue had just not cropped up till then..?
-
Great... So now they can steal our astronaut's votes as well...
-
-
-
-
- lifestudentno83
- 2 months ago
-
-
Don't they have to prove that they live there?
-
-
-
-
- AveryMoore
- 2 months ago
-
-
I wonder if they are going to do it from Moonbase Alpha.
-
-
-
-
- Mr_Costello
- 2 months ago
-
-
Just another Joe the astronaut.
-
I'd like it if this new procedure made an already gripping election even more exciting by pooling the astronauts into their own temporary state.
"Ok, thanks Ted. Those were the results from Ohio. Now let's look at how the folks in the state of Space voted."
If the polls close a bit, the candidates may even need to go into space to campaign if it's that tight a contest. Imagine the foreign policy experience Palin would gain from going that far outside of America.
-
The rest of us really have no excuse!
-
YAY for voting!
-
uh-oh...I hope the aliens don't interfere with the chads...
-
-
-
-
- dirtyemowords
- 2 months ago
-
-
VOTE!!!!!
-
I hope it doesn't require a million dollar voting machine
-
crazy! probably faster than absentee too
-
i'm worried about voter fraud
