ASTRONAUT READY TO FILE ULTIMATE ABSENTEE BALLOT.

Byline: Associated Press 

For the first time in history, an American astronaut is about to exercise his right to vote while in orbit.

A ballot has been sent to David Wolf aboard the Russian space station Mir, thanks to a new Texas law. It was prompted by John Blaha's inability to vote from Mir last year.

Under the old law, an absentee ballot had to be sent by U.S. mail. But in June, Gov. George W. Bush signed a bill saying astronauts registered to vote in Texas - where most of them live - can cast ballots from space.

Using new software developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Tony J. Sirvello III, Harris County's elections chief, sent a ballot last week to U.S. flight controllers in Moscow, and they transmitted it to Wolf 240 miles above Earth.

The 41-year-old doctor and engineer, who arrived on the station in September for a four-month stay, will open the e-mail on a laptop computer. He has until 7 p.m. CST Tuesday, Election Day, to get the ballot back to Sirvello via the flight controllers in Russia.

Sirvello will read Wolf's e-mail and punch a ballot by hand with the astronaut's choices.

``He's lost that one bit of secrecy, but that's a give-and-take situation to where that's the only way he can vote,'' Sirvello said. ``No one else will know other than myself.''

NASA plans to use similar software once the international space station is up and running. Assembly of the station will begin next summer.

``There's something about attaching you to the Earth, to be able to vote,'' Wolf said before he traveled to Mir. ``You're still a member of that society, and I think that's an important thing for space travelers.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Astronaut David Wolf will become the first American to vote from outer space.

Associated Press