PPP's Kim Mi-ae introduces 8 election commission reform bills linked to voting rights legislation

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Mi-ae said Monday she had introduced eight partial amendment bills — including a revision to the Public Official Election Act — aimed at reforming the National Election Commission.

The eight bills are companion legislation to the full revision of the National Election Commission Act, dubbed the "People's Voting Rights Protection Act," which Kim introduced as a PPP party-line bill on Oct. 7. That bill was co-sponsored by 109 PPP lawmakers, including Kim.

The newly introduced bills cover the Public Official Election Act, the National Referendum Act, the Local Referendum Act, the Act on Recall of Local Officials, the Political Parties Act, the Political Funds Act, the Act on Entrusted Elections of Public Organizations and the National Finance Act. More than 30 PPP lawmakers co-sponsored each bill.

The eight companion bills are designed to align related laws' administrative authority and procedures with the organizational restructuring envisioned in the parent legislation, ensuring the reforms take effect at actual election and voting sites — including public official elections, national referendums and local referendums. The proposed amendment to the Public Official Election Act would in particular require the entire management process for election materials — ballots, ballot boxes and vote-counting equipment — to be documented, with political parties and candidates given the right to verify those records.

A responsible official must be designated at each stage — printing, storage, transport, handover, use and disposal of remaining materials — with the date, location, quantity and participants all recorded. Records would be retained for five years after election day, and records related to serious election management incidents for 10 years. When a party or candidate requests access, the commission must comply, and the key contents of the records must be made public within 30 days of election day.

Retention periods for video records would also be significantly extended. Under the full revision of the NEC Act, video footage from locations where ballots and ballot boxes are stored, transported and handed over — as well as from vote-counting venues — would be kept for five years, with footage related to serious election management incidents retained for 10 years. Under current law, CCTV footage from early voting and mail-in ballot storage sites is kept for only six months after election day; the amendment would extend that to five years as a general rule, and 10 years for footage related to serious incidents.

Parties or candidates may request access to video records within 30 days of election day, and the commission must comply unless there is a legitimate reason not to. When an election appeal or lawsuit is filed, the commission would be required to provide copies of video records upon request from the election commission body hearing the appeal or from a court.

The bills also clarify accountability for on-site election management in line with the planned abolition of township- and village-level election commissions. Duties previously handled by those bodies — including setting up polling stations, designating polling observers and storing ballots — would be redistributed to district- and city/county-level election commissions and to polling managers. Polling managers and early voting managers would carry out on-site duties, with district- and city/county-level commissions providing oversight and supervision.

The amendments to the National Referendum Act, Local Referendum Act, Recall Act and Entrusted Elections Act would extend the election materials documentation and video records access provisions to cover various types of votes and entrusted elections. The amendments to the Political Parties Act and Political Funds Act would update provisions governing which level of the NEC is responsible for requesting data submissions and imposing fines, in line with the abolition of township- and village-level commissions.

The bills also restructure entrusted elections to allow the NEC to focus on managing public official elections. The amendment to the Entrusted Elections Act would exclude organizations that seek to delegate election management without a legal basis from the scope of the law.

In principle, entrusted elections by public organizations would be prohibited during the six months before and up to election day for public official elections held upon expiration of terms. Mandatory entrusted elections required by law during that period would be permitted only with the approval of the National Election Commission's plenary vote.

Mandatory entrusted elections without such approval would be managed directly by the delegating organization under its own bylaws, while discretionary entrusted elections during the same period would not be subject to entrusted management.

The bills also strengthen the budgetary independence of a newly established independent audit committee. The amendment to the National Finance Act would require the audit committee's budget to be itemized separately within the NEC's expenditure budget.

If the government seeks to reduce the audit committee's budget request, it must hear the committee's opinion at a Cabinet meeting. If a reduction is made, the government must submit to the National Assembly the amount cut, the reasons for the reduction and the audit committee's opinion.

"Trust in elections is not secured by the NEC simply claiming it is fair — it is secured when every step in the handling of a single ballot can be recorded and verified," Kim said. "The NEC's independence is not a privilege that exempts it from accountability."

All nine bills are set to take effect one year after promulgation. The eight companion bills will be adjusted as necessary depending on the outcome of the review of the parent legislation.