The United States presidential election of 2016 is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8th, 2016. The astronauts aboard the International Space Station also have the ability to vote from space thanks to a bill passed by the Texas legislature in 1997.
For astronauts, the voting process starts a year before launch, when astronauts can select which elections (local/state/federal) that they want to participate in while in space. Then, six months before the election, astronauts are provided with a standard form: the "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request - Federal Post Card Application."
Voting in space was first used the same year it was implemented, in 1997. NASA's astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from space, casting a ballot in a 1997 local election. At the time, he was aboard the Russian Mir Space Station.
During the US presidential election of 2016, there will be only one American in space, NASA's astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is currently aboard the ISS with two cosmonauts. Kimbrough is the most recent astronaut to take advantage of the legislation that lets astronauts vote from space.
Voting in space also comes with a convenient advantage - you don't have to wait in line to vote.
