Confirmed Cases Attending a Voting Event... Chaotic Management Leads to "I've Never Seen Such a Messy Vote"

On the afternoon of the second day of early voting for the 20th presidential election, around 6 p.m. on the 5th, voters wait in line to cast their ballots at a temporary voting booth set up at the early voting station in Songdo 5-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon.
Photo by Song Seung-yoon

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[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] On the second day of early voting for the presidential election, on the 5th, at the early voting site in Songdo 5-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. From 5 p.m. that day, voting was conducted for COVID-19 confirmed and quarantined individuals, resulting in a queue stretching hundreds of meters in front of the temporary voting booths set up in the outdoor plaza on the basement first floor. All of these were voters who had tested positive and were under self-quarantine orders.

Unlike the relatively smooth voting process at the general voting booths, there were continuous loud voices and protests at this temporary voting booth. The main issue stemmed from the fact that, unlike the usual voting method, voters could not directly place their ballots into the ballot box. Election staff collected ID cards from groups of 10 waiting voters, went to the early voting site to receive ballots, and after voters cast their votes at the temporary booths, the staff gathered the marked ballots and took them back to the early voting site to place them in the ballot box.

This process caused long waiting times, and some voters had to wait over two hours before finally being able to vote. Because of this, voting operations did not finish even after the 7 p.m. closing time. Amid the cold weather with biting winds, those waiting anywhere from several tens of minutes to two hours expressed their dissatisfaction.

In particular, some voters strongly opposed the unusual voting method, raising concerns about the possibility of election fraud. They argued that there was a chance of ballot swapping or omission during the process where staff carried the ballots to the ballot box. No Jin-han (32), who visited the early voting site that day, said, “I have never seen such voting in my life,” and expressed frustration, “Because we are COVID-19 confirmed, we are not allowed to put the ballots directly into the ballot box. If someone intends to manipulate, isn’t there a sufficient possibility?”

The distinction between confirmed and unconfirmed individuals was also not clearly maintained. It was common for confirmed patients to cross indoor corridors where unconfirmed voters were waiting to use the restroom, and it was easy to see confirmed individuals lining up among unconfirmed voters or unconfirmed voters mingling with confirmed ones and hastily moving away.

After all unconfirmed voters finished voting around 6:50 p.m., the voting location for confirmed patients was changed to the general voting booths, and the situation began to be resolved. Confirmed patients who had been shivering outdoors for over two hours were finally able to vote normally inside the voting site.

An official from the Yeonsu-gu Election Commission, who managed the voting site that day, explained, “Since this is the first election held after the COVID-19 situation, similar circumstances are occurring nationwide, not just here,” and added, “According to regulations, ballot boxes cannot be placed outdoors, and to prevent the paths of confirmed patients and general citizens from overlapping, there were some immature aspects.”

As such, due to improper management of COVID-19 confirmed and quarantined individuals, disturbances occurred at various polling stations nationwide.

At the Manchon 1-dong polling station in Suseong-gu, Daegu, police were dispatched after a situation occurred where ballots that had already been marked were found inside envelopes during the process of placing ballots into envelopes after confirmed patients voted. At the Daebong 1-dong polling station in Jung-gu, Daegu, conflict arose when an election observer requested to visually confirm the number of voters in the morning, but the manager refused.

Posts about incidents at confirmed patients’ early voting sites are also appearing one after another on online communities. Photos showing ballots being placed in baskets or cardboard boxes instead of ballot boxes during the voting process of confirmed and quarantined individuals are spreading.

In response, the Election Commission explained that since ballot boxes cannot be physically moved, ballots were placed in baskets or boxes visible to observers according to guidelines and then transferred to the ballot boxes, but voter protests have not ceased.

Meanwhile, the early voting rate over the two days including this day recorded 36.93%, breaking the highest early voting record ever. According to the Central Election Commission, out of 44,197,692 eligible voters nationwide over the two days starting the previous day, 16,323,602 participated in early voting, resulting in a final turnout rate of 36.93%.

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