'Suffrage is not subject to administrative failure': University students condemn ballot shortage

University students across South Korea are speaking out against an unprecedented ballot shortage that disrupted voting in the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections.

According to university communities Thursday, a statement was published Wednesday on Yonsei University's student online community criticizing the complete suspension of voting at major polling stations in Seoul and urging the student council to take action.

The statement's authors said ballots were exhausted at multiple polling stations in Songpa-gu, Gangnam, Gwangjin-gu and Dongjak-gu in Seoul, forcing voters to leave without casting their ballots. "This is not a mere administrative error but an incident in which the incompetence of a state institution violated citizens' right to vote and shook the very foundation of democracy," they said.

They urged student government not to remain silent in the face of a national failure and called on the emergency committee chair of the Yonsei University Student Council to immediately convene a general student assembly to address the ballot shortage and formulate a response.

They added that if the emergency committee refused, the expanded steering committee — the student government's deliberative body — should withhold approval of the emergency committee leadership.

The petition is currently collecting signatures from enrolled Yonsei students through a Google Form.

A Korea University student from the class of 2020, posting on the anonymous university community app Everytime, called the incident "a clear display of state institutional incompetence and a grave defect that effectively stripped citizens of the constitutionally guaranteed right to vote." The student said what was even more alarming was the NEC's conduct afterward. "Voters who could not cast ballots because of the shortage were still waiting in line, and yet the NEC attempted to remove the ballot boxes to counting stations," the student said. "The irresponsible idea of taking ballot boxes with fatal procedural flaws and mixing them in at counting stations strikes at the very legitimacy and credibility of the election."

The student added that citizens who physically blocked the removal of ballot boxes at polling sites to demand fairness were "exercising their entirely legitimate rights as voters." "This is not a matter of political leaning, personal conviction, or left-right allegiance. It is a matter of suffrage that must not be treated lightly," the student said.

The student urged the NEC to "investigate the truth without concealment and again apologize to voters," and to present a clear plan, in accordance with law and principle, for handling the improperly managed ballots.

Two Sungkyunkwan University students from the class of 2020 issued a joint statement under their real names, saying the right to vote enshrined in the constitution "does not merely mean the right to step inside a polling station. It is a right that is only complete when there is firm trust that our votes will be handled safely without the slightest error." "An election in which that trust has collapsed and procedures have been violated can never be called democracy," they said.

"We cannot hide our devastation at the fact that, due to the complacency and incompetence of the national system, citizens' voices were rendered so meaninglessly void in 21st-century South Korea," they said, calling for a re-vote to restore the rights of disenfranchised voters and the legitimacy of the election.

A Hanyang University ERICA campus student, posting anonymously, said "no argument against a re-vote can outweigh the realization of democratic values," and urged fellow students to speak out together against the NEC.

A Sogang University student, also posting anonymously, warned: "If we stay silent on Thursday, when our rights are violated on Friday, no one will speak up for us." The student called on the NEC to conduct a thorough investigation and put in place measures to prevent a recurrence.

A Kyung Hee University student, posting anonymously under the title "Suffrage is not subject to administrative failure," said the incident must serve as an opportunity to fully resolve public distrust and concern over the entire election management system. "This must not be dismissed as a simple administrative error but treated as a chance to review the entire election management framework," the student said.

The student said public questions are being raised about the characteristics and geographic distribution of the areas affected by the ballot shortage, and urged authorities to "transparently disclose the facts and conduct thorough verification so that no suspicion of political bias or intent remains." "Through rigorous investigation and verification, we strongly urge you to build a society in which citizens need not worry or have doubts about their precious vote," the student said.

Students from Seoul National University, the University of Seoul, Dongguk University, Hongik University, Catholic University of Korea, Inha University, Gachon University, Kyungpook National University, Chungbuk National University, Chonnam National University, Chungnam National University and Wonkwang University also posted statements on Everytime, some under their real names and others anonymously, continuing to condemn the NEC.