Choi Hyeong-du proposes election reform centered on main voting day at Policy2830 forum

A box of ballots believed to have been sent by the National Election Commission is found inside Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, after ballot boxes were transferred to the site on Thursday. [Yonhap]
A box of ballots believed to have been sent by the National Election Commission is found inside Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, after ballot boxes were transferred to the site on Thursday. [Yonhap]

The ballot shortage that marred the June 3 local elections has prompted calls within the People Power Party for a sweeping review of the early voting system. Lawmakers are pushing to restructure the election regime around a main voting day — as is standard in Britain, France and Germany — and replace early voting with a more advanced absentee voting system.

Rep. Choi Hyeong-du, secretary of the political affairs subcommittee of the PPP's internal research group Policy2830, presented a paper at a forum held Thursday at the National Assembly Members' Office Building. The forum, titled "Collapsed Trust: How to Restore It — Tasks for Reforming the Voting System and the Election Commission," focused on how Britain, France and Germany maintain high voter turnout without operating separate early polling stations or early voting days.

In his presentation, Choi said the ballot shortage during the local elections had deepened public distrust in the National Election Commission's ability to manage elections.

He said the commission had gone from hiring irregularities reminiscent of a family-run business, to the unprofessionalism of the so-called "basket voting" incident, and had now reached the point of failing to prepare sufficient ballots — in effect stripping citizens of their right to vote. "The Election Commission is a constitutional body whose duty is to protect the right to vote, yet it has instead infringed on that right," he said. "This has further fueled widespread public suspicion and distrust over the early voting and ballot-counting processes."

Choi then said that while early voting had contributed to higher turnout, the system carried a structural limitation: ballot boxes must be stored and transported for four to five days before the main voting day.

He said incidents caused by poor management had recurred repeatedly during the simultaneous nationwide storage and transport of early ballot boxes. He particularly noted that out-of-district early ballots must be mailed to the voter's registered counting station, creating an unavoidable gap during which neither the commission nor polling observers can monitor the process.

Choi proposed the electoral systems of Britain, France and Germany as alternatives. He explained that these countries either do not operate separate early polling stations or do so only in a very limited way, treating the main voting day as the norm while using postal or proxy voting as supplementary options.

Germany, he noted, allows anyone to apply for postal voting without a specific reason and has strengthened security through a QR code application system and signature verification procedures.

Britain similarly allows postal voting on request, ensuring ballot integrity through date-of-birth and signature checks. France operates a proxy voting system instead of postal voting and has put in place identity verification procedures using digital ID cards.

"Major European countries guarantee voting rights for absentees through more sophisticated means while keeping the main voting day as the norm," Choi said. He added that South Korea, by contrast, runs an early voting period longer than the main voting day itself along with separate early polling stations, increasing the burden of ballot box management. He also noted that 46.7 percent of all votes in the 22nd general election were cast early, as were 38.5 percent in the recent local elections.

As alternatives, Choi proposed extending the main voting period to two days — June 2 through June 3 — scaling back or abolishing the current early voting system and introducing an advanced absentee voting regime, building a postal voting system using digital ID verification and signature matching, and installing round-the-clock CCTV feeds of ballot boxes alongside a big data-based system to forecast ballot demand. He also said structural reform of the Election Commission and the legal codification of external audits should be pursued in tandem.

"Above all, what matters most is public trust," Choi said. "I hope that through today's discussion, we can restructure the election system around the main voting day and refine absentee voting along European lines. I look forward to an amendment to the election law — one that boosts turnout and firmly restores public confidence — being passed by the National Assembly as soon as possible."

The forum was organized by Policy2830 to discuss reforms to the election management framework and improvements to the voting system following the June 3 local elections. Rep. Park Hyeong-su serves as chair of Policy2830 and Rep. Park Su-min as secretary.

"Early voting is a good system that has raised turnout and expanded democratic legitimacy, but many people have serious doubts about it — whether because of the commission's mistakes or other reasons," Park Hyeong-su said. "If anyone questions whether it is right to leave things as they are, it is the political community's job to improve the voting system in a way that removes those doubts."


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