|
Astronaut votes from space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - With a quick computer key stroke, space station astronaut Leroy Chiao became the first American to vote for president from space, casting an encrypted ballot via e-mail and urging fellow countrymen to go to the polls Tuesday. "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 360 kilometres below. Chiao, 44, sent in his ballot Sunday night - "Halloween night and maybe that's kind of appropriate." "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." His ballot travelled via a secure e-mail connection to Mission Control in Houston, which forwarded it to the Galveston County clerk's office in Texas, where Chiao normally resides. He was living in Russia before his launch three weeks ago from Kazakhstan, training for this six-month space station mission. Only one other American has voted before from space: astronaut David Wolf aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1997, thanks to a state law signed that year by Texas' then-governor - President George W. Bush. The 1997 ballot Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-11-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=47890 |