Election watchdog mulling adding hand-counting process in general elections

▲ Officials from the National Election Commission sort ballots using a sorting machine in a mock-ballot count held in central Seoul on Nov. 13, 2023. (Yonhap)

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Election watchdog mulling adding hand-counting process in general elections

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- The National Election Commission (NEC) is considering having vote counting staff manually check all ballots before using counting machines in next year's general elections in an effort to ensure fairness, a ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday.

The idea comes amid requests from lawmakers that, under the current system, election observers often fail to sort out invalid votes during the ballot counting process, according to Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party.

"There have been strong demands from lawmakers to strengthen the visual inspection process of ballots," Rep. Yoo Sang-bum of the People Power Party said after the election watchdog reported the idea during a special committee meeting aimed at improving the country's election system.

Under the current system, machines are used to sort out and count votes. But skeptics have raised suspicions, especially since the 2020 parliamentary elections, that foul play could be involved during the process.

If the proposed manual checking system is introduced, votes will first be sorted out by machines and election staff will manually check all of them with their own eyes before putting them into the counting machines.

Additionally, the NEC plans to apply a specialized control program to the sorting machines that will only be able to recognize authorized USB devices, to strengthen security, Yoo said.

The new program is to address concerns from the state intelligence agency that the operating program currently installed on the machines could be hacked with the help of insiders.

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