[D-2 to Presidential Election] Confirmed Patients Also Cast Ballots Directly into the Ballot Box (Update)

Election Commission "Apologizes for Early Voting Confusion"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] The National Election Commission (NEC) announced on the 7th that for the 20th presidential election voting day (the 9th), a plan will be established to allow COVID-19 confirmed and quarantined voters to directly place their ballots into the ballot box. The NEC held a full committee meeting at 10 a.m. that day and stated, "We deeply apologize to the public for the confusion and inconvenience caused during the early voting of COVID-19 confirmed voters."

No Jeong-hee, a commissioner of the NEC who became controversial for not going to work on the early voting day, did not offer an apology or any other statement when meeting with reporters on her way to work, emphasizing that establishing countermeasures is the priority.

The voting procedures for confirmed and quarantined voters identified during early voting were overall inadequate. According to the Public Official Election Act, which allows only one ballot box per electoral district, a separate ballot box could not be installed for these voters. Instead, election officials placed the ballots they marked into temporary storage boxes before transferring them to the ballot box. However, controversy arose as the marked ballots were transferred using inconsistent methods across electoral districts, such as baskets, waste disposal bags, and paper bags. This was largely due to the NEC's failure to properly guide voters on the voting method at temporary voting booths. Additionally, the voters' names were written on the back of the ballots, or ballots that had already been marked were found inside the temporary voting booth envelopes, leading to protests from voters on site. Some voters who presented their ID and lined up left without voting due to concerns about election fraud.

In particular, this early voting was criticized for insufficient preparation on site amid the spread of the Omicron variant and increased voter turnout. During the 20th general election, temporary voting booths for quarantined voters were also installed, and the procedure for transferring ballots was the same, but there was no major controversy. An NEC official said, "During the 20th National Assembly general election and the April 7 by-elections, confirmed patients did not vote, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety received applications from quarantined individuals who wished to vote and provided the list, with public officials controlling the site. However, this process was omitted this time."

The government will hold a vice-ministerial meeting in the afternoon to review measures to prevent recurrence of inadequate voting support. Practical measures to ensure the smooth implementation of the operational policies confirmed at the NEC meeting will be discussed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.