WORLD OF WEIRD · ELECTION 2026
Would You Remember to Vote If You Were in Space?
Houston, We Have a Ballot!
Election Day can be a hassle. Traffic. Long lines. Parking. That one neighbor who thinks a conversation about politics should begin before your first cup of coffee.
But three Americans had a slightly different commute to their polling place: about 250 miles straight up.
NASA astronauts Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney voted in the November 3 midterm elections while aboard the International Space Station. Apparently, being off the planet is no excuse for missing Election Day.
A bedroom with a ballot box? Sort of.
In a video shared on X, Menon showed off his voting booth. It was his sleeping compartment. His computer let him complete an electronic ballot and send it securely to election officials in Harris County, Texas.
Meanwhile, some of us still can't convince a printer to connect to a laptop sitting three feet away.
Houston, we have a democracy
This isn't NASA's first election rodeo. Texas passed a law in 1997 enabling astronauts to vote from space, and David Wolf became the first American to do so that year, aboard Russia's Mir space station.
The process uses NASA's communications network to relay an encrypted ballot to election officials on Earth. Only the astronaut and authorized election clerk can access the completed ballot.
No polling-place parking. No campaign flyers stuck under windshield wipers. And, as far as we know, nobody has tried to put a campaign sign on the space station.
The 10 Geeky final word
Three astronauts. One space station. Zero parking problems.
Next time someone says their polling place is too far away, remember: three people just voted from outer space.
And when the election arguments get loud, these voters have one advantage the rest of us don't: they can look out the window and see the entire planet.
Now that's perspective.
Reporting: Reuters, November 3; Space.com, November 3; ABC/Storyful, November 3. Image source: NASA/Apollo 17.
