Three NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have cast their votes in the 2026 US midterm elections, even though they are hundreds of miles above Earth. Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney filled out electronic ballots and sent them securely to election officials in Harris County, Texas.
“Yes, you can even vote from space! All three U.S. crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials,” Menon wrote on X. In the video , Menon gives a look inside his small sleeping compartment, where he completed the US midterm voting process using his computer. Once they receive the electronic ballot, they fill it out aboard the ISS and send it through NASA’s communication system.
Because it is home to the agency’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control in Houston, he then sent the electronic ballot to Harris County, which handles voting for many NASA astronauts. Because texas passed a law in 1997 allowing astronauts to cast their ballots while on space missions, voting from space is possible.
Astronauts first submit a Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot, according to NASA.
The ballot travels through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. NASA then transfers it to Johnson Space Center in Houston before sending it to the relevant county clerk. The International Space Station did not receive its first crew until November 2000, so Wolf’s vote came from a different space laboratory.
