NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, the only American not on the planet, has cast her vote from space.
Rubins voted from the International Space Station.
“I voted today,” tweeted Rubins from the NASA Astronauts Twitter account on Oct. 22. The astronaut was pictured in front of an enclosed area on the orbiting space lab marked “ISS voting booth.”
HOW DO NASA ASTRONAUTS VOTE IN SPACE?
The space agency has a motto of “vote while you float” for astronauts.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins outside the voting booth at the International Space Station. (NASA)
“Like other forms of absentee voting, voting from space starts with a Federal Postcard Application or FPCA,” NASA says on its website. “It’s the same form military members and their families fill out while serving outside of the U.S. By completing it ahead of their launch, space station crew members signal their intent to participate in an election from space.”
Once the FCPA is approved, the county clerk who manages elections in the astronaut’s home county sends a test ballot to a team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, according to NASA. A space station test computer is then used to test whether it can be filled out and sent back to the county clerk.