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Manual ballot count for general elections requires 77,000 clerks

Manual ballot count for general elections requires 77,000 clerks

Posted February. 02, 2024 07:24,   

Updated February. 02, 2024 07:24

한국어

As the manual ballot count process, where vote-counting clerks manually check ballot papers during the counting process, is introduced for the first time for the April 10 general elections, up to 77,000 vote-counting clerks will be needed, which is 20 percent higher than the previous general elections four years ago. However, it has been challenging to secure enough clerks as public officials who are the key resources for ballot count complain about the low compensation of 9,860 won per hour, which is the minimum wage level. A large number of civilians will be mobilized if not enough clerks can be secured among public officials, which contradicts the purpose of introducing a manual ballot count to prevent any suspicions about election rigging.

According to the research by The Dong-A Ilbo on Thursday, the National Election Commission concluded that about 15 to 20 percent of additional vote-counting clerks are needed due to the introduction of manual ballot count after looking into how many individuals would be needed for voting and ballot count. This means up to 13,000 clerks are additionally needed, compared to 64,015 clerks mobilized for the April 15 general elections in 2020. The total number of clerks working on the general elections, including voting officers and voting clerks, is expected to increase from 327,449 in 2020 to up to 347,000 this year.

However, some local governments have not submitted a list of public officials to be mobilized for the election-related work. The civil servant union pointed out the issues of long voting hours and low pay, and recently held a demonstration to raise compensation in front of the National Election Commission building. Compensations paid to vote-counting clerks and voting clerks are 150,000 won for 14 hours and 130,000 won for 15 hours, respectively, which are similar to the minimum wage level.

The participation rate of public officials in voting-related work decreased from 63.5 percent in 2016 to 53.3 percent in 2020. The National Election Commission filled the empty spots with bank tellers and other civilians.


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