The Command Post
2004 US Presidential Election
« Chicago 'burbs | Main | Report from the hustings »
November 02, 2004
Misc. | First American to Vote For President From Space

With a key stroke, Astronaut Leroy Chiao became the first American to vote for president from space. According to the Associated Press:

“It was just a small thing for me, but it is important symbolically to show that every vote does count,” Chiao said from the international space station a few hours after the polls opened 225 miles below.

[. . .]

I thought long and hard about it over the weekend, made my final decision and Sunday night went ahead and cast the ballot and pushed the send button,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It was a neat moment.”

Chiao’s vote was sent via secure e-mail connection to Mission Control in Houston and forwarded to the Galveston County clerk’s office in Texas, where Chiao normally resides.



Posted by Dan Spencer at November 2, 2004 04:35 PM | TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.


Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)