Texas is the only state that allows residents to cast absentee ballots from space. Who was the first person to cast a vote while in space?

In 1997, Texas passed legislation allowing absentee ballots to be cast from outer space, making the Lone Star state the only one in the union that allows such votes. That same year David Wolf became the first Texan to make use of that law. He sent in his vote for the mayor of Houston while aboard the Russian space station Mir.

The first presidential election to receive an extraterrestrial vote was in 2004. While commanding Expedition 10 at the International Space Station, Leroy Chiao cast his ballot. In 2012, two Americans on the Space Station crew, commander Sunita Williams and flight engineer Kevin Ford from Expedition 33, cast their vote in the presidential election. In the 2016 presidential Shane Kimbrough managed to cast his presidential space vote.

The process of getting one's vote in from more than 200 miles above the Earth's surface starts a year before election day. Astronauts receive a list of the elections taking place while they are "out of the country" and they select which elections in which they want to vote. About six months from the election, astronauts are provided with the "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request." This form authorizes the voter to cast a ballet from outside the United States. When they cast their ballots, they receive a digital version of their ballot, which is beamed up by Mission Control. Ballots are then returned via the same process. Once back on Earth, they are delivered securely to the proper voting authorities.