Election Day (yawn…)

by Robert Koehler on December 19, 2007

Despite being a national holiday (“Festival of Democracy” and all that), I’m actually quite busy today, so I won’t be posting as much as you’d expect. I do expect, however, that ~~Andy~~ one of our other bloggers will take up the slack.

Anyway, to start the links:

As expected, voter turnout has been piss poor. How poor? We’re looking at the lowest ever, with only 36.7% showing up as of 1 pm. Assuming this keeps up, this election will be the first time voter participation has sunk into the 60% range. For comparison’s sake — 1987: 89.2%, 1992: 81.9%, 1997: 80.7%, 2002: 70.8%. Oddly enough, given how popular LMB was as governor, Seoul voter turnout has been the lowest so far, while Gyeongsangbuk-do (which could help or hurt LMB, depending on how many break for Lee Hoi-chang) and the Jeolla provinces (definitely helps Chung Dong-young) have recorded the highest levels.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 littlebrownasian December 19, 2007 at 2:05 pm: I’m not surprised. About a third of my colleagues in the office said they don’t intend to vote, instead they had other plans for today.
2 Andy Jackson December 19, 2007 at 2:10 pm: I don’t think I will be doing much more than posting the exit poll results at 6:00 and the declaration of a winner circa 10:30. It’s a church night and I will be taking care of my daughter will mommy is out.
3 littlebrownasian December 19, 2007 at 2:45 pm: Andy,

Nice! Maybe you should check out that Blade Runner Director’s Cut Nomad’s been gloating about on his blog. Have you seen it?

Now, since the turnout for the voters in Seoul were low, I wonder how this will affect LMB’s chances of winning…
4 JiMong December 19, 2007 at 3:54 pm: I can’t get rid of revised “Saemaeul Undong” campaign song by #8 Huh Kyung Young from my head since I accidentally heard via SBS internet radio days ago. I wonder how many votes he would get.
5 maui December 19, 2007 at 4:08 pm: Well at least the drive into work was quick this morning, granted with people on holiday schedule it’s like a ghost town on USAG-Y down where my office is.
So had to put some thing together since I got here early.
Here another song for ya, to help clear your head.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1543566101
6 Nomad December 19, 2007 at 6:44 pm: No wonder voter turnout was so low:

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2884096

One good thing about it being a “holiday” though; there was plenty of parking on Osan Air Base today.