---
title: "Stranded Astronauts Say They’ll Vote From Space"
description: "The astronauts currently stranded due to technical issues with Boeing's Starliner space capsule plan to cast their vote in November."
date: "2024-09-18"
modified: "2024-09-18"
authors:
  - name: "Sharon Adarlo"
    job_title: "Correspondent"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/sadarlo"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/stranded-astronauts-vote-from-space"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "boeing"
  - "NASA"
  - "starliner"
  - "the digest"
---

# Stranded Astronauts Say They’ll Vote From Space

![The astronauts currently stranded due to technical issues with Boeing's Starliner space capsule plan to cast their vote in November.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/stranded-astronauts-vote-from-space.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Tetra Images / Getty Images\</em\>*

## Write-In Space

The [two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/retired-astronaut-boeing-starliner>) due to [technical issues](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-starliner-trouble-docking-iss>) with Boeing's Starliner capsule plan to cast their vote in the November presidential elections, showing that Earth-bound American citizens have no good excuse for not voting.

"It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool," said NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, [as reported by *NBC News*](<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/stranded-astronauts-vote-space-rcna171066>)*,* during a conversation with reporters on Friday.

Her colleague and fellow Starliner passenger Butch Wilmore echoed those remarks.

"I sent down my request for a ballot today," said Wilmore. "It’s a very important role that we play as citizen including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that."

NASA sends a ballot prepared by election officials to the astronauts consisting of a PDF document that's password protected and has boxes for them to check off in order to make their choices.

Having astronauts vote from space has been done before, according to *NBC News*, but there must have been last minute maneuvering to send ballots up to these astronauts, who unexpectedly saw their eight-day test flight extended until February of next year.

## Orbit Poll

The development and production of Boeing's Starliner have been plagued with [numerous problems](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-starliner-crew-dragon-gap>), from delays to software issues, well before its first launch with a crew to the space station. It also [costs twice as much as rival SpaceX's Dragon capsule](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-starliner-spacex-cost>), which NASA has tapped to rescue the stranded astronauts.

NASA officials [were leery](<https://futurism.com/boeing-execs-yelled-nasa-rescue-stranded-astronauts>) of letting astronauts take the Starliner for a return home because the capsule had issues with its [thrusters before it docked with the station](<https://futurism.com/nasa-engineers-disturbed-tested-starliner-thrusters>).

The Starliner finally made it home, empty handed, earlier this month — though it [experienced additional thruster issues](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/starliner-new-problems-return-earth>) on its way down, showing that NASA was right to be cautious.

Further investigations — and perhaps hearings — will hopefully cast light on what went terribly wrong with a project that ate up so many tax dollars.

**More on astronauts**: [*Stranded Astronaut Says He Just Wasn't "Comfortable" Getting "Back in the Starliner" After Safety Issues*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/stranded-astronaut-not-comfortable-starliner>)