[Subtitle News] "Start Voting Later Because Commute Is Early": Research Report Reveals Administrative Convenience Over Voter Needs

It has been revealed that a 2022 research report by the Korea Institute of Public Administration, which the National Election Commission (NEC) used as the basis for reducing the number of printed ballots for the June 3 local elections, clearly displayed the NEC's administrative convenience-oriented attitude that led to the "ballot shortage" incident.

In the section on "Improvement Measures for Voting and Counting Management," the report included a review of changing the start time of early voting from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., citing complaints from NEC staff survey results that their commute time was too early.

The report stated, "All staff must arrive at work 2 to 3 hours before voting begins during the early voting period," adding that "there is a high demand for adjusting early voting hours."

However, the report noted that while NEC staff were unanimous in their opinion to delay the start time of early voting, they were negative about the idea of extending the closing time into the evening.

Experts raised concerns about these suggestions even at the time the report was written. A university professor cited in the report as an expert in political science pointed out, "It has limitations as it lacks consideration for people who want to vote early in the morning and go about their daily lives."

The report also included content suggesting the need to reduce the number of ballots printed for election day voting.

This served as the basis for the National Election Commission to reduce the ballot printing volume from over 60% of the number of eligible voters to "over 50%."

The report concluded that the reason for reducing the printing volume was a lack of storage space for the ballots before they are distributed.

In effect, the conclusion was to simply reduce the number of ballots rather than expanding the storage space.

The National Election Commission stated that this report was merely reference material and not the official position of the NEC.

However, critics argue that the commission cannot be free from responsibility, given that the primary research methods were surveys and in-depth interviews conducted with NEC staff.

The report was commissioned after the 20th presidential election in 2022, which was marred by the "basket voting" controversy, and the final report was submitted in December of the same year.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Seo Byeong-wook | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.