A vote-by-mail state, my home state of Washington allowed me to vote before I deployed to The Ice.
November 8 is election day in the US, so how do US citizens in Antarctica vote? While McMurdo Station has its own Wells-Fargo automated teller machines, post office, and station store, there are no polling stations because US citizens working here don't officially reside in Antarctica. Instead, absentee ballots, voting by mail, and in some cases for deployed military personnel, voting by email, are the only options. I live in Washington State, a vote-by-mail state which no longer operates polling stations. I requested my ballot early and actually voted on September 28, a few days before I deployed to Antarctica. Let's say, for argument's sake, that I didn't live in a vote-by-mail state and were not a deployed active duty military member. I would have needed to acquire an absentee ballot and return it prior to election day. How would I have accomplished this? Through the US Postal Service, of course.
Building 140 houses the McMurdo branch of the US Post Office, which handles outgoing mail.
McMurdo's first post office opened with the Station in 1955 as part of the Military Postal System. In fact, even though it's been run by civilian contractors since 1995, it still maintains it's Army and Air Force Post Office designation. This allows USAP participants based here (and elsewhere on USAP ships, at research stations, and in field camps) to post letters and parcels at regular US postal rates. Letters are brought in from Christchurch on military flights every time a flight arrives. Parcels have the lowest priority and only arrive when there's room on these flights. Once the mail arrives, it's sorted in the mail room and package recipients are notified with a posting on the Station's internal website. Outgoing mail is metered and shipped by the post office (right next to the mail room) and travels on the same military flights as inbound mail.
Carolyn manages the mail room, which sorts and distributes incoming mail.
If I'd ordered an absentee ballot from my hometown election office, I might have waited up to a month for the mail to arrive. I would then have needed to post it pretty quickly to make sure it made it back by election day. I'm only in Antarctica for two months so it was no problem ensuring that I was able to cast my vote, but other USAP participants may be here upwards of 14 months and they would have needed to get the process started well ahead of today. Still, choosing your local, state and federal representatives, judiciary, and leadership is a privilege no matter what continent you're on. Happy election day!
The Post Office is only open four hours every day and a mailbox makes after-hours mailing straightforward.
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