Reached an all-time high... 'Including early voting' voter turnout is 62.1% as of 1 PM [Comprehensive]

Korea Economic Daily

Summary

The voter turnout for the presidential election at the same time slot reached an all-time high of 62.1%.
This turnout figure includes early voting and overseas ballots, and there were differences in turnout rates by region.
Whether the final turnout rate will exceed 80% draws attention, while the results are expected to become clear around midnight.

The voter turnout for the 21st presidential election was provisionally tallied at 62.1% as of 1 PM on the 3rd. This is the highest turnout for this time slot in the history of the presidential elections.

According to the National Election Commission, by 1 PM, 27,565,241 out of a total 44,391,871 eligible voters had cast their ballots.

This is 0.8 percentage points higher than the 61.3% turnout at the same time during the 20th presidential election in 2022, and 6.6 percentage points higher than the 19th presidential election's turnout (55.5%) in 2017.

Starting from 1 PM, the National Election Commission aggregates early voting rates and other forms. As a result, early voting (34.74%), in which 15,423,607 participated on the 29th-30th of last month, as well as overseas, shipboard, and absentee voting rates, have been included.

The highest voter turnout was in Jeollanam-do (74.1%), followed by Jeollabuk-do (71.8%) and Gwangju (71.6%).

Although Honam’s three regions had low turnout on the actual voting day, their rates increased with the addition of early voting.

Conversely, Daegu, which had high turnout throughout the morning, recorded 59.3%. Daegu’s early voting rate was the lowest at 25.63%.

The area with the lowest turnout was Busan (58.1%), followed by Daegu (59.3%) and Incheon (60.1%). Seoul recorded 61.2%.

Attention is on whether the final turnout will surpass 80% for the first time since the 15th presidential election in 1997. In the 15th election, before early voting was introduced, turnout at the same point was 47.3%.

The final turnout for the 20th presidential election, in which early voting was implemented, was 77.1%, and for the 19th, it was 77.2%.

The Election Commission expects that counting at the 254 national polling stations will start mostly around 8:30–8:40 PM. Exit poll results from the three main terrestrial broadcasters are scheduled to be announced at around 8:10 PM, right after voting ends, and the outline of the winner is expected to emerge around midnight.

Soo-Young Kim, Hankyung.com Reporter swimmingk@hankyung.com