By Kim Se-jeong
As early voting went into the second day, some elderly voters and those with physical disabilities expressed frustration with polling stations that failed to accommodate their needs.
“I wish we had an elevator,” a female resident in her 60s said outside a polling station in Mangwon-dong, western Seoul, Thursday. She complained on behalf of her 90-year-old mother who had difficulty walking. With a cane in one hand and holding her daughter’s hand in the other, the mother ascended the stairs slowly to the second floor where the polling station was set up. “We just had to take it slowly.”
One of the volunteers said although the building has no elevator, it can accommodate people with disabilities. “Do not worry, we don’t have an elevator but we have people here who will carry the voter to the second floor. We carried a person up the stairs in the morning,” one volunteer said.
That wasn’t enough of a motivation for Kim Seok-jin. Arriving at another voting venue, Kim gave up casting his ballot.
“There’s no way for me to get down to the basement. Here, the facility is particularly bad. I just decided not to vote,” Kim told SBS during an interview. The building had an elevator but didn’t go down to the basement. It had a lift on the stairs for wheelchairs, but it couldn’t help him. “An electric wheelchair is too heavy to be carried on a lift,” one of the election assistants said.
More than anything, the disabled said what they need is a convenient location to cast their ballots.
According to the National Election Commission (NEC), 3,507 stations were mobilized for early voting. On May 9, the number will be 13,964 across the country.
In Gangwon Province alone, according to Yonhap News Agency, 36 polling stations had no elevator. It is unclear what the number is across the country.
You Soon-ja, a Seoul resident, with a vision problem, will vote on May 9 but is well aware of the hassles involved in voting.
“At the polling station, I have to insert a ballot into a template which enables me to recognize the candidate numbers,” she said. “But it’s difficult to make an alignment. It is also difficult to find the right hole and to make a stamp on it. If I get that wrong, my ballot gets cancelled.
The NEC pledged to make the polling stations somehow accessible to all. “The last resort will be making makeshift polling stations outside the building so that the disabled can vote.”