7 Ballots Per Person, Voting Split Into Two Rounds... 'One Person Per Ballot'

Progress of the 8th Local Elections and National Assembly By-elections on the 1st

On the 1st, the day of the 8th nationwide local elections, voters are casting their precious votes at the Hong Eun 2-dong 5th polling station set up at the Hong Eun 2-dong Community Service Center in Seoul. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Geum Bo-ryeong] On the 1st, during the voting for the 8th local elections and the by-elections for National Assembly members being held at 14,465 polling stations nationwide, the majority of voters can cast a basic 7 votes. Marking only one candidate per ballot paper prevents invalidation.

According to the Central Election Commission on the day, this local election basically involves seven votes: metropolitan mayor/governor (city/province governor), superintendent of education, basic local government head (head of autonomous district/city/county), district metropolitan council member, district basic council member, proportional representation metropolitan council member, and proportional representation basic council member. However, in the special autonomous province of Jeju and the special autonomous city of Sejong, five and four elections respectively are held.

Voters in the seven areas where National Assembly by-elections are held (Daegu Suseong-gu Eul, Incheon Gyeyang-gu Eul, Gyeonggi Seongnam-si Bundang-gu Gap, Gangwon Wonju-si Gap, Chungnam Boryeong-si Seocheon-gun, Gyeongnam Changwon-si Uichang-gu, Jeju Jeju-si Eul) will receive up to eight ballots.

Only one candidate must be selected per ballot paper. The district basic council member elections adopt multi-member constituencies electing 2 to 5 members per electoral district, so many places have multiple candidates from the same party, requiring careful attention when voting. In such cases, voting for two or more candidates invalidates the ballot.

The superintendent of education election ballot does not include party names or symbols, so voters must check the candidate's name before voting. To ensure political neutrality in education, parties do not recommend candidates for superintendent of education elections. Also, a rotation system without candidate numbers (gyoho sunbeonje) is used to arrange candidate names.

In this main election, voting is divided into first and second rounds. In the first round, voters receive three ballots (superintendent of education, city/province governor, district head/mayor/county head), mark them, and place them in the ballot box. In the second round, voters receive four ballots (district city/province council member, district district/city/county council member, proportional representation city/province council member, proportional representation district/city/county council member), select candidates, fold the ballots, and put them in the ballot box. Voters in areas holding National Assembly by-elections receive one additional ballot in the first round.

Voters should bring identification such as resident registration card, driver's license, or passport and vote at the designated polling station in their registered address jurisdiction. Wearing a mask is mandatory to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Voting hours are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for general voters, and from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for COVID-19 confirmed or quarantined voters.

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