Written by HyunCheon Kim / Translated by SeungYun Woo



The overseas voting for the 18th Korean presidential election started on Wednesday, December 5, at 8 am. As soon as the polling place opened, the voters, although not gathered around together, continuously visited.

The first voter was an international student, Jeong-hwa Kim (26). Kim, who is currently studying city-planning at MIT, said, “I’ve always been interested in politics.”
The next voters who showed up were in small groups of people in their 20s to 40s, most of them short-stay residents.

Some permanent residents were also found at the balloting place and they, having lived in the United States for a long time, appreciated that they now have the right to vote in the Korean presidential election.

One of the voters, Young-deok Hwang (female, 56), who immigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago, said, “I’ve never thought about voting in the Korean presidential election in the United States and now I’m very glad that I’m able to vote.”

Also, another voter, Dong-hyun Lee (male, 40) going by on his way to work, said, “It’s my first time voting ever since I moved to the United States 10 years ago, and when I got a chance to vote, I became more interested in politics.”

Moreover, the Korean consul general, Kang-ho Park, his wife, and the parties concerned of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Boston voted all together at 9:30 am.
According to the Consulate General, the total votes on the first day of the election were 194 and the highest number of voters is expected over the upcoming weekend.

The voting will continue until Monday, December 9th at the Korean Consulate General in Newton. The balloting place is open from 8am to 5pm and the same time applies on the weekend as well.

Among the total registered voters (12,891) under the jurisdiction of the Korean Consulate General, 3,717 of them appeared to be permanent residents and 9,174 are international students or short-stay residents.
Meanwhile, a considerable number of the students who have transportation problems seem to do carpooling to the voting place by communicating through SNS.

ⓒ 보스톤코리아(http://www.bostonkorea.com), 무단전재 및 재배포 금지