--- title: How Astronauts Are Casting Their Midterm Votes From Space description: For some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/ author: Callum Sutherland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-11-03T19:46:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-11-03T22:55:51.919Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Astronauts Are Casting Their Midterm Votes From Space og:description: For some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc52a6a7263efb34d/6aea3772ac57f9ecfd3d7ce9/jasmin-and-loral-voting.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1536 og:image:height: 864 og:image:alt: jasmin-and-loral-voting.webp og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Astronauts Are Casting Their Midterm Votes From Space twitter:description: For some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc52a6a7263efb34d/6aea3772ac57f9ecfd3d7ce9/jasmin-and-loral-voting.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Astronauts Are Casting Their Midterm Votes From Space > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8aa1fbed-8d4f-4c1d-b3ab-1486b2f17e8a&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: NASA Astronaut Casts Ballot For Midterm Elections From the International Space Station [Watch (HLS stream): NASA Astronaut Casts Ballot For Midterm Elections From the International Space Station](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8VWtyonb.m3u8) (0:29)  _Published 2026-11-03. For some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library._ by [Callum Sutherland](https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/) ## Callum Sutherland Reporter Nov 3, 2026 7:46 PM UTC by [Callum Sutherland](https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/) ## Callum Sutherland Reporter Nov 3, 2026 7:46 PM UTC Listen 00:001.0x01:58 Narrated by TIME AI. Millions of voters across the country are [heading to the polls Tuesday](https://time.com/live/2026/11/03/midterm-elections-2026-key-races-live-results-latest-news-updates/) to cast their ballots in the crucial midterms, which will define the final two years of President Donald Trump’s presidency. But for some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library. What happens if you’re further afield—say, in space? That’s the case for Anil Menon, an American astronaut currently based at the International Space Station (ISS). Sharing his experience in a [video](https://x.com/astro%5Fanil/status/2117625618200219782) for social media, Menon said he had “the privilege of being able to vote here as well, just like you on the ground.” Menon, who launched aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft in July, pointed out his room, which “doubles as a voting booth,” for all intents and purposes. “Inside is my computer, where I was able to fill out an electronic form, and send it to Harris County,” he said, while floating inside the laboratory. (Harris County is home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.) Menon’s fellow U.S. crewmembers—Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, who [launched](https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-spacex-crew-13-launches-to-international-space-station/) to the ISS via a SpaceX rocket last month—were also able to vote. Like any other Americans who will be away from home, astronauts are able to fill out a Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot. Once an astronaut fills out an electronic ballot aboard the ISS, the document “flows through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna” at a test facility, according to a [NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/general/how-nasa-astronauts-vote-from-space-aboard-international-space-station/) description shared in 2024. From there, the votes are then sent to Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, and then on to the relevant county clerk responsible for handling the individual ballot. To ensure privacy, the ballot is encrypted and can only be accessed by the astronaut and county clerk. American astronauts have been voting from space since 1997, when the Texas Legislature passed [a bill ](https://hro.house.texas.gov/pdf/ba75r/hb0841.pdf)that allowed NASA astronauts to cast ballots from orbit. David Wolf is credited as [the first American astronaut to vote from space.](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/voting-from-space/506960/) He did so while aboard the Mir Space Station. “I voted alone up in space, very alone, the only English speaker up there, and it was nice to have an English ballot, something from America,” Wolf told _The Atlantic_ in 2016\. “It made me feel closer to the Earth and like the people of Earth actually cared about me up there.” ## Transcript [00:00] Welcome to Space Station, [00:02] where today we have the privilege of [00:04] being able to vote here as well, [00:07] just like you on the ground. [00:09] This is my room that doubles as a voting booth for me. [00:13] Inside of it is my computer, [00:16] where I was able to fill out an electronic form and [00:18] send it to Harris County so I could vote today. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/"},"headline":"How Astronauts Are Casting Their Midterm Votes From Space","datePublished":"2026-11-03T19:46:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-11-03T22:55:51.919Z","description":"For some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/","keywords":["Midterms","News Desk","Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc52a6a7263efb34d/6aea3772ac57f9ecfd3d7ce9/jasmin-and-loral-voting.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Callum Sutherland","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/callum-sutherland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc52a6a7263efb34d/6aea3772ac57f9ecfd3d7ce9/jasmin-and-loral-voting.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"jasmin-and-loral-voting.webp","caption":"","creditText":"NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/midterms/","name":"Midterms"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/","name":"How Astronauts Are Casting Their Midterm Votes From Space"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA Astronaut Casts Ballot For Midterm Elections From the International Space Station","description":"For some Americans, the process of casting their ballot is a little more complex than heading to the local school or library.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8VWtyonb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-11-03T22:09:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8VWtyonb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/","duration":"PT29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/article/2026/11/03/how-astronauts-are-casting-their-midterm-votes-from-space/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```