In an age of ubiquitous mobile communication, it may look anachronous for voters to take the time to go to the polls on election day. Why should they do so when technology makes it possible to cast ballots anytime during the voting hours no matter where they may be? Moreover, mobile voting, if properly managed, could reduce election costs and illegal electioneering.
The usefulness of mobile balloting was proven when more than 598,000 voted by mobile phone for the election of the main opposition Democratic United Party’s leader last month. Buoyed by the success, the party decided to conduct mobile voting again, this time to pick nominees in more than 100 of the 245 electoral districts for the April 11 parliamentary elections.
But mobile balloting in parliamentary primaries is not as simple as it looks, as evidenced by a case involving a campaign worker in Gwangju. The campaign worker appeared to have breached the election law when he was soliciting eligible voters to register as mobile participants in a Democratic United Party primary for nomination in this year’s general election. When an investigation was launched against him, he killed himself.
Documents he left behind include a confidential list of households compiled for resident registration, receipts of payment for entertainment and a list of people to whom gifts were sent ― a possible indication that an illegal campaign was widely conducted. In other words, the documents showed that all the electoral vices that it was naively believed mobile balloting would remove were still going on.
One cause of electoral fraud is intense competition in Gwangju. Political hopefuls are desperate in their pursuit of the main opposition party’s nomination there because it virtually guarantees election to the National Assembly. Hindsight shows that the party was not as well prepared as it should have been for mobile balloting.
The party promised to withdraw its endorsement from nominees if they are found to have engaged in illegal campaigns. That would be the minimum for damage control. Should criminal investigations start against them, the last thing it should do is attempt to obstruct them.
Regrettable as the alleged fraud is, it should not deter the National Election Commission and the political community from conducting studies on mobile voting as an alternative to paper ballots at the polls. Eventually, mobile technology will have to be put to use for voter convenience and cost reduction.
