NASA astronaut Anil Menon has shared a glimpse of how astronauts can cast their votes while living aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which
orbits more than 400 km above Earth.
Menon, along with fellow NASA astronauts Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins, voted electronically in the US midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3. He posted a video on X explaining how the crew completed their ballots and sent them securely to election officials.
Yes, you can even vote from space! All three US crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials. https://t.co/hJCExQ2nKr
— Anil Menon (@astro_anil) November 3, 2026
“Yes, you can even vote from space!” Menon wrote in his post. “All three US crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials.”
In the 29-second video, Menon can be seen wearing an ‘I voted’ sticker as he explains the process. He also gives viewers a look inside his sleeping compartment, which served as his polling space.
“Inside of it is my computer, where I was able to fill out an electronic form and send it to Harris County so I could vote today,” he said.
Menon submitted his ballot to Harris County in Texas, where NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control are located. According to the Associated Press, Delaney and Watkins followed the same procedure.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also commended the three astronauts for taking part in the elections while stationed hundreds of kilometres above Earth.
The voting system relies on NASA’s Near Space Network, managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Astronauts complete electronic ballots, which are encrypted and transmitted securely to election officials. Access is limited to the astronaut and the relevant election clerk to safeguard the voting process.
Menon arrived at the ISS on July 14 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Delaney and Watkins reached the station on October 1 aboard a SpaceX mission.
US astronauts have been able to vote from space since 1997, after Texas introduced legislation allowing citizens in orbit to participate in elections. NASA astronaut David Wolf was the first to use the provision, casting his ballot from Russia’s Mir space station.
The November 3 midterm elections are being held to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 37 senators, 36 state governors and several local representatives.
Separately, the US Justice Department deployed around 1,000 election monitors and observers across all 50 states, calling it the largest monitoring effort in its history. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K Dhillon defended the move, saying the department was pursuing election transparency in an “assertive and nondiscriminatory manner”.
