재외선거 참여율 제고를 위한 제도적 장치 연구

Abstract

The turnouts of the 19th National Assembly election and the 18th presidential election were 2.52% and 7.07%, respectively. Since then, the overseas turnouts for the 20th National Assembly election and the 19th presidential election have been low at 2.58% and 8.31% respectively. Since the adoption of the overseas elections, the turnouts in all four elections were recorded in only single digits. As a result, it has been pointed out that the purpose of introducing the overseas election system has been less meaningful, and some who were disappointed with high cost of election expenditure and low turnout argued over uselessness of it. According to the current Public Official Election Act, overseas Koreans have to visit foreign diplomatic missions in order to vote, contributing to poor voter turnout. At the time of enrollment of overseas voters, legal and institutional improvements were made to allow enrollments by family by proxy, by e-mails, and in Koreandominated areas. However, there was a limit to improving the participation rate. Therefore, the institutional strategies to be introduced in order to improve the participation rate in overseas elections are as follows. First, as a measure to improve the turnout rate of overseas elections, it is necessary to introduce an online voting system based on a block chain and postal voting system and to provide voting rights for regional assembly members, transportation convenience, and voting convenience for voters who return to home country. Second, as a measure to increase the application․registration rate of overseas voters, it is necessary to allow for the extension of proxy acceptance and the introduction of fax reception.