Constitutional Court Rules Election Law Provision Recognizing Voting Rights Based on "Full Age" Is Constitutional

Constitutional Court Grand Bench.

[Asia Economy Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist Reporter] The Constitutional Court has ruled that the provision in the Public Official Election Act which grants voting rights based on the age on the election day does not violate the Constitution. This is the Constitutional Court's first judgment on the provision of the Public Official Election Act that sets the age calculation standard for voting rights.

The Constitutional Court announced on the 7th that it unanimously upheld the constitutionality of Article 17 of the Public Official Election Act, which calculates the voting age based on the current date of the election day, in a constitutional complaint filed by Mr. A, who was 18 years old at the time before the 7th nationwide simultaneous local elections held on June 13, 2018, claiming that the provision infringed on his voting rights and equality rights.

Article 17 (Age Calculation Standard) of the Public Official Election Act states, "The age of voters and candidates shall be calculated as of the election day."

Mr. A, who could not be recognized as having voting rights because he was not 18 years old on the election day, filed a constitutional complaint arguing that voting rights should be granted based on January 1 of the year he turns 19.

The Constitutional Court first stated, "The constitutional principle of universal suffrage presupposes restricting voting rights for citizens who have not reached a certain age, and Article 24 of the Constitution delegates the distinction of voting age to the legislature."

It continued, "The rationality of the provision under review depends on whether it can clearly distinguish between those who have voting rights and those who do not."

The Court explained, "The provision under review stipulates 'as of the election day' as the standard date for calculating voting age, and the dates of each public official election are clearly defined in Articles 34 to 36 of the Public Official Election Act. Therefore, according to this provision, it is possible to clearly determine whether each citizen has voting rights based on their birthday for each public official election."

It further pointed out, "Unlike the provision under review, if the standard date for calculating voting age is set to a specific day before or after the election day, there is room for arbitrary judgment regarding exactly when that day should be."

The Court also noted, "Of course, if voting rights are granted based on January 1 of the year a person reaches a certain age, as the petitioner claims, more people may be able to exercise voting rights compared to the provision under review. However, this is not directly related to the main purpose of the provision under review, and considering that Article 15, Paragraph 2 of the Public Official Election Act was amended in 2020 to lower the voting age itself to 18, even taking into account the petitioner's claims, the provision under review cannot be regarded as arbitrary legislation beyond the limits of legislative discretion."

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