Early voting turnout hit an all-time high... Controversy over voting

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Today (the 5th) was the second day, and there were long lines all over the early voting booths.

The early voting turnout exceeded 34% as of 5pm.

The final count is not yet due to the handling of the corona confirmed ballot papers, but it is already an all-time high.

Reporter Lee Hyun-young reports.

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There was a long line today at the nationwide advance voting booths.

[Lee Chan-hee / Gangseo-gu, Seoul: I did it because I thought I would have more time on the voting day if I did it in advance.

(On the main polling day) there are a lot of people, so it was great to do it when I had free time.]

7.56 million people today alone, and 15.33 million people in total so far yesterday, the early voting rate was 34.69% as of 5:00 pm.

The early voting rate for the 19th presidential election in 2017 was 26.06% and the previous high of 26.69% for the 21st general election in 2020, setting a new record high since the introduction of the early voting system.

By region, Jeonnam had the highest voter turnout at 49.48%, about half of the voters, followed by Jeonbuk and Gwangju with the highest voter turnout.

Gyeonggi-do had the lowest turnout with 31.33%, followed by Daegu and Incheon with the lowest turnout.

Corona 19 confirmed and quarantined people also participated in early voting from 5 pm at a temporary voting booth separated from general voters.

However, as some confirmed cases objected to the fact that the confirmed patients delivered their ballots to the voting clerk instead of putting them directly into the ballot box, the final advance voter turnout has not yet been counted.

(Video coverage: Lim Dong-guk, Video editing: Park Seon-sun) Let's analyze a little more with reporter Lee Hyun-young of the

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political team, the highest early voting turnout ever.

[Reporter Lee Hyun-young: It has already surpassed the all-time high at 5 pm.

You will have to watch the main voting four days later, but there are also expectations that the turnout will exceed 80% for the first time since the 15th presidential election in 1997.

In the 19th presidential election in 2017, which was held after impeachment, the early voting turnout was 26%, and the main vote reached 77%.

This year, the contest between the opposition and opposition candidates is tighter than at the time, so the enthusiasm for voting is high for both supporters.

So, the National Election Commission also agrees that the early turnout can raise the main turnout.]

[Reporter Lee Hyeon-young: Democratic Party president Song Young-gil said that our party seems to have a higher approval rating, especially in the Honam region, where the early voter turnout is high.

At the same time, the People's Power Representative Lee Jun-seok expressed expectations that the rising heat of Honam is the direction of the people's mind to avoid change, and that the choice of Candidate Yoon will continue.

They encourage each other to vote by saying that it is advantageous to them, but there must have already been active supporters in the early voting, and the real game is the main vote, so it seems like this is how they see it.]

[Reporter Lee Hyeon-young: As the issue that Corona 19 confirmed patients could not directly put their ballot in the ballot box and delivered it to the voting clerk or had it delivered in this way arose, reports of whether this would cause a problem keep coming to us. There is.

When I inquired with the National Election Commission, I found that by law, there can be only one ballot box at a polling place, so corona confirmed patients did not use the ballot box used by general voters, but delivered the ballot to the voting clerk or had the voting clerks put them in a basket for storage. .

So, in this process, it is the position that the principle of secret ballot was not damaged or not, but controversy seems inevitable.]