How do astronauts cast their votes from space? NASA answers

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Ever wonder how astronauts aboard the International Space Station cast their ballots? It's a fairly new process that began in 1997 when the Texas Legislature passed a bill allowing NASA astronauts to cast their vote while in orbit.

It's made possible through NASA's Space Communication and Navigation Program which allows astronauts to cast ballots from approximately 250 miles above the Earth.

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Just like most data transmitted between the space station and Mission Control in Houston, ballots travel through the Near Space Network. The network provides missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth with communication and navigational services.

Astronauts fill out a request for an absentee ballot, then fill out an electronic ballot, which flows through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

From there, the ballot is transferred to Houston and then on to the county clerk where the astronaut lives when not in space. To preserve the vote's integrity, the ballot is encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk.

A very interesting process that makes every vote count, even in zero-gravity land!