Written by HyunCheon Kim / Translated by SeungYun Woo


2,369 Korean voters (66.9% of 3,542 registered voters) turned out for the overseasvoting for the 18th Korean presidentialelection, which ran for 6 days from Dec. 5 to 10 at the Consulate General of Republic of Korea in Boston.

Yet the turnout rate in Boston failed to reach the average worldwide overseas voting rate, 71.2%, as well as the nationwide average rate, 71.6%. It is quite unexpected that Boston had the 11th highest turnout rate out of a total of 13 voting places throughout the U.S., while the percentage of voting registration had ranked the highest in the U.S.

Starting from Dec. 5, a total of 194 voters cast their vote on the first day and 173 voters on the next day.
As the number increased to 307 voters on Friday, the third day of voting, it reached its highest on Saturday, 818 voters.

Less people(581) voted on Sunday, and there were 296 voters on the last day of the voting.
On Saturday, when the most voters appeared, Han-woong Jeong, who visited to vote with his primary school children, said he was “very proud to show his children to exercise their political rights as a Korean.”

Also, there were a lot of international students visiting to vote, according to Jeong. Most of them seemed to visit by carpooling since they came into the voting place in a small group.

According to Yang-ho Seo, the official of the Korean election committee, which presides over overseas voting,“the free parking spaces were ready but those who found it hard to reach the voting place by public transportation seemed to come by renting cars. Also, many parents came holding their children’s hands. I could see how many Koreans are interested in overseas presidential voting.”

Kang-ho Park, the Korean consul general in Boston, is very appreciated by Korean residents in New England who exercised their political rights. “I hope that the voting rate of recent overseas voting will result in Korean overseas residents expanding their rights and interests.”

For this presidential election, the worldwide Korean voters visited voting places more than twice as they appeared for the Korean congressman overseas election last April.

In the United States, a total of 37,103 voted, out of 51,794 registered voters. Among the cities, Anchorage (132 out of 151, 87.4%) and Dallas (1,633 out of 1,931, 84.6%) had the highest turnout rate followed by Los Angeles with 79.6% (8,156 out of 10,242).

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