Shane Kimbrough is an American hero. Not only is he risking his life breathing recycled air and eating tasteless, shrink-wrapped meals in a radiation-blasted tin can 250 miles above Earth, the man just took time out of his busy schedule to participate in the grotesque bloodsport that is the 2016 presidential election.
The Associated Press reports that Kimbrough, the American astronaut who arrived at the International Space Station in mid-October, cast his absentee ballot for Tuesday’s presidential election “sometime in the last few days.” As has been the case for nearly 20 years, astronauts on the ISS can vote from space using a secure electronic ballot forwarded by Mission Control in Houston and returned via email.
Apparently, outer space is one of the few places where the internet is a good thing as far as exercising one’s voting rights goes. Still, the fact that Kimbrough, who describes himself and his fellow astronauts as “pretty much apolitical,” spent a few of his precious, off-Earth minutes contemplating the current state of American politics, underscores an important point about tomorrow’s election: you have no excuse to stay out of it.
