(24 Oct 1996) English/Nat
A U-S astronaut currently orbiting the earth wants to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
The problem is U-S state law says nothing about voting from space.
Texas officials are trying to help out, John Blaha, who has been on the Russian Mir space station since mid-September.
U-S astronaut John Blaha is pushing the limits of absentee voting.
He's trying to vote in the November 5th presidential election -- from outer space.
The American astronaut won't be around on Election Day because he's doing a stint aboard the Russian Mir space station.
Blaha and two Russian astronauts gave a press conference from space station Mir Thursday.
The American astronaut certainly puts a new spin on the term "floating voter."
SOUNDBITE: (English)
Well, I'll tell you what. I don't know a way... what I always said was that somebody would let my wife vote for me then I can give her the authority to do that and that's how I could get my vote in. I think that's the simplest way to do that. So if somebody arranges that we could do that, if we can't arrange it then that's just the way it'll turn out, but either man, Bill Clinton or Bob Dole would be a great result, so whether I get the vote or not, I guess it's not that important.
SUPER CAPTION: John Blaha, North American astronaut
NASA says Blaha could send his ballot choices back to Earth
electronically to the county clerk's office, but state law only allows voting in person or by absentee ballot.
But local officials say they would need special permission to do it that way, and they've asked Governor George W. Bush - son of the former president, to relax the state election code.
Blaha however seems to be more interested in space rather than politics.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
What has surprised me the most is how incredibly fantastic this station is. The space station Mir is an incredible laboratory, an incredible workshop, you can observe astronomy incredibly well, you can observe the earth, you can observe the environment, you can conduct experiments, it has a tremendous amount of volume with all the modules, a lot of privacy and it's just an incredible space station. I'm very impressed with it.
SUPER CAPTION: John Blaha, North American astronaut
He's scheduled to remain in orbit until mid-January, regardless of November 5th's outcome.
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