Reliance on inexperienced citizens as poll workers sparks scrutiny after local elections' ballot shortages
The June 3 local elections had 418,156 poll workers in total, of which 126,539, or 30.3 percent, were ordinary citizens. Experts and politicians cite the inadequate vetting and training of such workers as a significant factor of the ballot shortages.
People vote past the 6 p.m. voting deadline in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on June 3.YONHAP
One in three poll workers for the June 3 local elections, which experienced ballot shortages, was an ordinary citizen with little relevant hands-on experience.
The share of such nonspecialist workers fell after the “basket-voting” controversy during the 2022 presidential election, during which ballots from voters who were quarantined due to the Covid-19 pandemic were collected in plastic baskets and paper bags. But for this year’s local elections, that number rose sharply.
The June 3 local elections had 418,156 poll workers in total, according to data that the National Election Commission (NEC) submitted to the office of Rep. Youn Kun-young of the Democratic Party on Monday. Of those, 215,117, or 51.4 percent, were local public officials; 126,539, or 30.3 percent, were ordinary citizens, classified as neutral appointees; 31,428, or 7.5 percent, were school employees; 12,105, or 2.9 percent, were national public officials; and 11,422, or 2.7 percent, were teachers. In Songpa District, southern Seoul, where a ballot shortage occurred, ordinary citizens made up 27.7 percent.
Under the Public Official Election Act, the NEC can appoint ordinary citizens as poll workers. As public officialsshunned the duty due to its heavy workload and low pay, the share of ordinary citizens rose steadily from 38.8 percent in the 2020 general election to 41.6 percent in the 2022 presidential election and 41.7 percent in the 2022 local elections.
Following the basket-voting controversy, conspiracy theories involving election fraud spread, and complaints mounted. In response, the NEC and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety provided better pay and other benefits to incentivize more public officials to take on the task. The share of neutral appointees consequently fell to 26.1 percent in the 2024 general election and 22.5 percent in last year’s presidential election.
However, that number climbed above 30 percent this year.
“Because local elections involve more work than presidential elections and [other elections], officials have grown more reluctant to work during that time,” an NEC official said.
Officials are expected to avoid poll work even more after the latest ballot shortage controversy, causing the share of ordinary citizens to increase.
Experts argue that the primary problem is that the rising reliance on ordinary citizens has not been matched by adequate vetting or training. Under current rules, party members and candidates’ relatives are barred from poll work; in practice, however, applicants only need to submit a form attesting that they are not party members.
People queue to cast their ballots in the local elections at a bank in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, on June 3.NEWS1
Additionally, training is often limited to about an hour each on the eve of the election and on Election Day.
“We currently entrust only simple tasks, such as distributing ballots and sorting tally sheets to ordinary citizens, but if staffing shortages among public officials get worse down the road, we will have no choice but to assign them key tasks, including judging invalid ballots,” an NEC official said.
“The fact that the NEC offloads voting and counting duties onto ordinary citizens is also one of the main causes of this incident,” Rep. Youn said.
Experts warned that similar incidents could occur in the future.
“If the system in which the NEC holds the authority but pushes the responsibility onto public officials is not fixed, a similar incident can happen at any time,” said Lee Jae-mook, a political science professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
