From infinity and beyond, Shane Kimbrough, a NASA astronaut living in space found a way to vote in the United States (US) 2016 November elections.
On board the International Space Station, Kimbrough filed his ballot in the presidential election, according to a Tumblr post by NASA, with NASA telling Yahoo News that Kimbrough was able to file his ballot in the 2016 election from the space station.
In the US, for astronauts who will be in space on Election Day, the voting process starts a year before launch. At that time, they are able to select the elections in which they want to participate.
Then, six months before the election, astronauts are provided with the form “Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request — Federal Post Card Application”.
NASA astronaut David Wolf was the first American to vote in space while on the Russian Mir Space Station in a 1997 local election, according to NPR.
Donald Trump emerged winner over Hillary Clinton in the election in which Kimbrough voted from space, with former President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary; former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, former commander in chief Jimmy Carter, billed to attend Trump’s inauguration later this month.
Bush’s father, President George H. W. Bush, will not be attending the inauguration for health reasons, a spokesman has told CNN.