US Elections 2024: How will Sunita Williams cast her vote from space?

Two NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, will cast their vote for the US elections 2024 from space. They are currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS)

Just because they are not on Earth, the American astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) will not be required to abstain from voting in the presidential election. Nasa is making sure that Don Pettit, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams are able to participate in the US elections 2024 even from space.

Hague and Pettit most likely completed Federal Postcard Applications (FPCAs) prior to their arrival at the station, although Wilmore and Williams had cast absentee ballots. FPCAs, which are used by US residents and military people residing abroad, are comparable to absentee ballots. It still holds true for Hague and Pettit because they are in space. 

 

US Election 2024: How astronauts vote in space?

Similar to absentee voting, which is a vote cast by a voter unable to visit the designated polling place, NASA facilitates a voting procedure. Votes are sent over 1.2 million miles between the space station and the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas.

In order to obtain an absentee ballot and complete an electronic ballot while in orbit, astronauts must complete a Federal Post Card Application. The paper is then transmitted to a massive antenna at NASA's test facility in New Mexico via the agency's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System.

The ballot is then sent by NASA to the Mission Control Center, which forwards it to the county clerk who is in charge of casting the ballot. Only the astronaut and the ballot-casting clerk can view the encrypted ballot, protecting privacy. 

According to NASA, Kate Rubins was the last astronaut to cast a ballot from the International Space Station during the 2020 US elections, while David Wolf was the first person to do so in space in 1997.

US Election 2024:  Astronauts voting system 

NASA implemented a program that permits astronauts to fulfil their civic responsibilities while in space in order to guarantee that no one is left behind. According to reports, two Boeing Starliner astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are stranded in space until February are among the four Americans currently in space who would like to exercise their right to vote.

Originally expected to return to Earth in time to cast her ballot in person, Indian-origin space veteran Williams expressed her excitement about voting in space during a September conference. "It's a very important duty that we have as citizens, and [I am] looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool," she stated.

Her partner Wilmore mentioned his excitement to exercise his voting rights. "It's a very important role that we all play as citizens, to be included in those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that," he added.