재외선거 우편투표 도입 사례와 함의: 스웨덴을 중심으로

Abstract

Democratic countries that have introduced the postal voting system, including Sweden, have expected that the postal voting system will effectively lower the cost of participating in elections and expand participation opportunities for overseas voters. This paper examines the case of postal voting for overseas nationals in Sweden, where the proportion of postal votes is high, while implementing embassy/postal/proxy voting for overseas nationals in Korea, where the introduction of postal voting for overseas nationals is being considered. In the case of overseas national voting, when only direct voting is possible at diplomatic missions, whether or not overseas voters can vote and their intention to vote will be affected by the distance between their residence and the polling place. Mail-in voting has been considered a means of reducing the opportunity cost for overseas Koreans to participate in elections in an environment where overseas polling places are limited. However, the Swedish case study shows that even countries with much experience in operating systems still face various technical challenges. There may be setbacks in returning mail-in ballots depending on the postal and transportation environment and external factors that vary from country to country, and institutional design and continuous supplementation are needed to minimize such exceptional factors. What must be considered before introducing a mail-in voting system in Korea is that voter consent on the design and implementation of the mail-in voting system and voter trust in the legitimacy of the procedure, operation, and results must be preempted.