E-Voting Promotion Council

Question 1) What are the methods of electronic voting?

Article 278 of the Act on the Election of Public Officials
(Voting and Ballot Counting by an Electronic Organization)
provides that decision-making on computerized management of affairs pertaining to voting and ballot counting
requires consultation with political parties that have negotiation bodies in the National Assembly. The Act stipulates that for such consultation, an E-Voting Promotion Council involving political parties that have negotiation bodies in the National Assembly may be set up and operated.

Question 2) Is there any possibility of double voting and infringement of voting secrecy?

Regarding the possibility of double voting:

To prevent potential infringements on voting secrecy:

The smart card issued for voting stores only information on the electoral district of the relevant voter, not personal information on him/her. In addition, even the information on electoral district is automatically deleted upon completion of voting in a bid to guarantee voting confidentiality and prevent any leak of personal information.

Question 3) Is there any risk of hacking?

· Any and all information systems in operation currently have problems associated with prevention of hacking. The    e-voting system that the National Election Commission is seeking to implement in the target year of 2008 is a    standalone system whose e-voting machines are not connected through a network. This will prevent any    potential hacking from the get-go.
· E-voting machines are designed so that they will not be accessible to the telecommunication network in terms of    hardware. With regard to software, an exclusive operating system that also does not permit communication
will be  used to eliminate the risk of hacking.
· Introduction of Internet voting will be pursued cautiously after forging a political and social consensus and    formulating perfect technical countermeasures concerning system security.

Question 4) What are the measures to redress the "digital divide" between
generations and between regions in the case of introduction of the e-voting system?

· Currently, the level of informatization and people's use of information in the Republic of Korea is far ahead of other    nations around the world. Under the circumstances, concerns about a digital divide in this country are not as    serious as in other countries.
· The following thorough measures were taken to prevent implementation of the e-voting system from resulting in    any infringement on the suffrage of voters who are unfamiliar with the informatization trend.
   - During the process of developing related devices, an e-voting machine whose operation is much easier than       that of the ATMs (automated teller machines) being widely used in the financial sector was developed in       consideration of the elderly and disabled.
   - To alleviate concerns about possible infringement on voters' suffrage rights due to a digital divide between       regions, classes and ages, there are plans to formulate a transitional measure to allow voters to choose       between the existing paper-based voting method and the e-voting method at a polling station.
· Prior to introduction of an e-voting system, we will engage in multi-faceted PR efforts both on-line and off-line to    make voters more familiar with the e-voting system. At the same time, we will consistently strive to ensure that    people can trust the reliability of the e-voting system by providing support for civilian elections including school    elections and performing consigned election management.