Remote polling stations put damper on absentee voting

By Kang Hyun-kyung

A 40-year-old eligible voter living in Tallahassee, Fla. decided not to cast a ballot in the overseas absentee voting after knowing it would take a six-hour drive for her to reach the polling station in Atlanta.

Kim Mee-young, who went to the capital city of Florida to study years ago, said the majority of her friends there didn’t vote either, as they found it very difficult to squeeze voting into their busy academic schedule.

Most of her Korean friends and neighbors there are either students attending Florida State University or their spouses.

“It would take 12 hours in total for us to go to Atlanta and return home after voting.

Therefore it’s not an easy choice for us to go to the polling station at the expense of our study or taking care of our children,” Kim said.

The polling station in Atlanta is the nearest one for Koreans in Tallahassee to cast their ballots.

“I think the long distance from where we live to the polling station is a headache preventing eligible voters from exercising their right to pick a representative. There are other minor reasons such as the relatively low public awareness of the absentee voting,” Kim said.

Kim is one of some 2.23 million eligible voters living abroad. The April 11 National Assembly elections are the first one, through which Koreans living in foreign countries are allowed to vote for their preferred candidate in polling stations set up in Korean embassies or consulates.

Of the 2.23 million eligible voters, approximately 123,000 were registered voters. These registered voters were asked to cast their ballots from March 28 through April 2. The turnout rate showed that only 2.5 percent of eligible voters took part in the parliamentary election.

In addition to long distance, there is a fundamental obstacle discouraging overseas voters from participating in overseas voting.

Vladimir Kim, a Korean Russian, said few Koreans having resided in Moscow for many years are enthusiastic about Korean politics, and their limited understanding of the domestic political scene made it difficult for them to be active in the election.

The 24-year-old, who came to Seoul for a master’s degree program two years ago, said Korean politics has never been a topic of conversation among Koreans of his age in Moscow.

Kim denied the allegation that overseas Koreans are conservative voters in general. “I can’t confirm it because when we say people are conservatives or liberals, they are supposed to have at least an understanding of Korean politics.

As they have basically no idea, so it’s going to be hard for me to say whether their political orientation slanted toward conservatives or not,” he said.

When the ruling and opposition parties discussed years ago whether overseas citizens were to be allowed to cast their ballots in elections, the liberals were not enthusiastic about the measure.

Liberal politicians presumed Korean citizens abroad were conservative. If they participated in an election, they believed, their candidates would likely suffer.

So they insisted only Korean citizens staying in foreign countries temporarily, such as students or workers, needed to be allowed to vote, while not allowing citizens with permanent residence permits who have lived there for a long time to vote.

After several rounds of discussions, the parties finally agreed to allow those who were staying abroad temporarily as well as those who held permanent residence to participate in overseas absentee voting.