Presidential Election Turnout Hits Record 65.5% at 2 p.m.… Will It Surpass 80%?

Will Final Voter Turnout Surpass 80 Percent?
Jeonnam Records Highest Turnout, Busan the Lowest

As of 2:00 p.m. on June 3, the voter turnout for the 21st presidential election was provisionally tallied at 65.5%. This is the highest turnout recorded for a presidential election at this time of day.

On the 3rd, the voting day of the 21st presidential election, a family is taking a voting certification photo near a polling station in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the website of the National Election Commission, as of 2:00 p.m. on this day, 29,071,044 out of a total of 44,391,871 eligible voters had cast their ballots.

This figure includes the turnout from early voting on May 29 and 30, in which 15,423,607 people participated (34.74%), as well as the turnout from overseas voting, shipboard voting, and absentee voting.

So far, the turnout is 0.7 percentage points higher than the 64.8% turnout at the same time during the 20th presidential election in 2022, and 5.6 percentage points higher than the 59.9% turnout at the same time during the 19th presidential election in 2017.

By region, the combined turnout from main voting and early voting was highest in Jeonnam at 76.0%, followed by Gwangju at 74% and Jeonbuk at 73.8%.

Although the voter turnout in the Honam region was relatively low on the main voting day, the early voting turnout was very high, with Jeonnam at 56.50%, Jeonbuk at 53.01%, and Gwangju at 52.12%, resulting in a high combined turnout.

In contrast, the turnout was lower in Busan at 62.1%, Daegu at 63.3%, and Chungnam at 63.4%. Daegu recorded the lowest early voting turnout among metropolitan local governments at 25.63%, but showed a relatively high turnout in the main voting on this day.

In other regions, the turnout was 64.9% in Seoul, 63.7% in Incheon, 65.3% in Daejeon, 65.1% in Gyeonggi-do, 70.0% in Sejong, 64.4% in Ulsan, 64.7% in Gyeongbuk, 64.1% in Gyeongnam, 66.3% in Gangwon, and 63.3% in Jeju.

Attention is focused on whether the final turnout in this presidential election will surpass 80%. Since the introduction of direct presidential elections, the last time the turnout exceeded 80% was in the 15th presidential election, when former President Kim Dae-jung was elected, with a turnout of 80.7%.

The 18th presidential election, in which former President Park Geun-hye was elected (75.8%), the 19th presidential election, in which former President Moon Jae-in was elected (77.2%), and the 20th presidential election, in which former President Yoon Suk-yeol was elected (77.1%), all exceeded 75% but did not reach 80%.

The turnout published every hour on the hour by the National Election Commission is based on the turnout collected nationwide 10 minutes prior.

When voting ends at 8:00 p.m. on this day, ballot boxes will be transported to 254 counting centers across the country. The vote counting is expected to begin around 8:30 to 8:40 p.m.

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