South Korea and the US had their first covid19 case of the same day. Different approaches in the early days of the pandemic resulted in vastly different results.
We used to send Peace Corps Volunteers to South Korea. Maybe they could return the favor and help us run our elections? That is, if we ever get to where they are now in the recovery process.
"South Koreans streamed into polling stations wearing face masks and plastic gloves, taking part in the world’s first major national election held during the new coronavirus pandemic…. South Korea’s turnout on Wednesday, coupled with record levels of early voting last week, reached about 66% of the country’s 44 million eligible voters. That was the highest since 1992….With dozens of countries postponing votes in recent weeks, South Korea provides some early guidance on how elections might proceed once governments see rates of new virus infections flatten and fall..”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-koreas-coronavirus-test-run-how-to-hold-an-election-11586948227
South Korea’s Coronavirus Test Run: How to Hold an Election
Its national election gives countries early guidance on how votes might be held once rates of new infections fall
By Andrew Jeong and Timothy W. Martin
Updated April 15, 2020 2:59 pm ET
SEOUL—South Koreans streamed into polling stations wearing face masks and plastic gloves, taking part in the world’s first major national election held during the new coronavirus pandemic.
Choosing its 300-seat National Assembly, South Korea’s turnout on Wednesday, coupled with record levels of early voting last week, reached about 66% of the country’s 44 million eligible voters. That was the highest since 1992, according to the country’s National Election Commission. South Korea holds legislative elections every four years.
President Moon Jae-in’s governing Democratic Party acquired a majority in the vote, giving more leeway for his goals of warming ties with North Korea and boosting economic growth through higher wages rather than from tax cuts, political analysts said.
The phrase “done voting” was at one point South Korea’s top-trending item on Twitter. Voters cycled in and out with waits rarely exceeding 30 minutes. A polling site in central Seoul prepared a box of extra face masks just in case—but, by late afternoon, hadn’t given out a single one as all voters there had brought their own.
With dozens of countries postponing votes in recent weeks, South Korea provides some early guidance on how elections might proceed once governments see rates of new virus infections flatten and fall.
Voting with Coronavirus
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, South Korea is proceeding with its national election on April 15. Confirmed patients vote by mail, while those in self-quarantine can do so after the general polls close.
People without symptoms and family members of confirmed sick people are allowed to leave quarantine to vote.
People with coronavirus can vote by mail.
Workers spray a disinfectant in the polling station.
Door handles and handrails are cleaned and windows opened.
Voters must stand at tape-marked spots spaced 1-meter apart.
When voters arrive, their temperature is checked.
Voters are first given hand sanitizer, then gloves.
Voters submit an ID to the poll worker and then pull down their mask to verify their identity and then sign. Normally, verification is done with a fingerprint. A ballot is printed.
Voters discard their gloves as they leave.
Voters take the ballot to the voting booth, make their selections, and drop the ballot in a box.
Once the most virus-hit outside China, South Korea has seen the number of new virus infections slow recently. Social-distancing measures are set to end Sunday. But it won’t be known for days, if not weeks, if the country’s large turnout on election day—a public holiday—triggers another wave of infections.
On a sunny spring day, South Koreans flocked to the country’s 14,330 polling stations to vote.
Among them was Lyon Kang, a 51-year-old IT consultant, who arrived at a southern Seoul voting precinct midday. He came with his wife and two adult children, where they waited in line at tape-marked spots spaced 3 feet apart. They had their temperature taken, rubbed sanitizer into their hands and slipped on pairs of disposable gloves.
It wasn’t textbook social distancing, Mr. Kang said. “But it’s not like we’re all sitting together inside a small room for an hour-long meeting,” he said.
The left-leaning Mr. Moon, whose five-year term ends in 2022, had much to gain from Wednesday’s election. Though his party had held the most National Assembly seats before Wednesday’s polls, it was not the majority.
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South Korea votes by voter marked paper ballots
During the absentee or early voting period, voters can vote at any polling place in the country. On election day, voters may only vote at polling places in their registered constituency. Korean voters mark paper ballots with a rubber stamp using red ink. There is one race per ballot paper; if there are multiple office up for election, ballot papers are color coded and voters are issued one ballot per race.[2]Korea uses a central count model. After the polls close, ballot boxes are sealed and transported to the constituency's counting center. Traditionally ballots were hand counted, and optical scanners have been adopted since 3rd local elections held on 13 June 2002. The scanners resemble cash sorter machines, sorting the ballots into stacks by how they are voted. Stacks are then counted using machines resembling currency counting machines.[3]Korean elections have been praised as a model of best practice.[2] However, the legality of the introduction of optical scan technology has been challenged and there have been allegations of rigged counting.[3]…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/south-koreas-ruling-party-wins-election-landslide-amid-coronavirus-outbreak
South Korea
South Korea's ruling party wins election landslide amid coronavirus outbreakVoters reward Moon Jae-in for response to pandemic with biggest majority since transition to democracy in 1987
Published onWed 15 Apr 2020 23.50 EDT
South Korea’s ruling party has won a landslide victory in national assembly elections, in what is being seen as an endorsement of President Moon Jae-in’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Moon’s left-leaning Democratic party and its smaller affiliate won 180 seats in the 300-seat assembly – the biggest majority in the national assembly by any party since South Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987 – according to the Yonhap news agency. The conservative opposition United Future party and its smaller sister party won 103 seats.
Turnout was 66.2%, higher than any parliamentary elections held in South Korea since 1992.
On Wednesday millions of people, wearing masks and standing at least one metre apart, moved slowly between lines of duct tape at polling stations in one of the first national elections to be held since the global outbreak began.
Before casting their vote they underwent a temperature check, sanitised their hands and put on disposable plastic gloves. Election officials in masks escorted those who failed the temperature check or who were not wearing a mask to separate polling booths, sanitising the facilities after they had voted.
About 13,000 people under self-quarantine due to the virus were allowed to cast ballots immediately after the polls closed, provided they had no symptoms.
South Korea once had the world’s second-largest number of infections after China but brought the outbreak under control through aggressive testing, tracking infected people and widely observed social distancing.
The country continued to record a low number of new infections on Thursday, reporting 22 new cases – the fourth day in a row they have stayed below 30. The country has a total of 10,613 cases and 229 deaths.
Before the outbreak observers had expected Moon’s party to struggle, with job creation, wages and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme dominating the political agenda. His approval rating fell to the 30% level in 2019 amid an economic slowdown and a political scandal involving the then justice minister.
But Moon’s response to the coronavirus outbreak has seen his approval rating jump from 41% in late January to 57%, according to Gallup polls.
His “coronavirus diplomacy”, including phone calls with other world leaders eager to learn from South Korea’s response, boosted public support for his administration, said Minseon Ku, a politics scholar at Ohio State University.
Moon had successfully portrayed the outbreak as an “opportunity for South Korea to restructure its economy – capitalising on industries like AI and biopharma”, she said, adding that voters had been impressed by international recognition of the administration’s coronavirus response.
Chung Eun-young, a Seoul resident, said she had arrived at the polling station just after it opened at 6am to avoid crowds. “I was worried about the coronavirus,” Chung said. “They checked my temperature and handed me gloves but it wasn’t as troublesome as I had expected. I don’t like what we are going through but I cast my ballot to prevent the wrong candidates from getting elected.”
The successful opposition conservative party candidates included Thae Yong-ho, the most senior diplomat to have defected from North Korea.
Thae was deputy ambassador at the North Korean embassy in London when he defected with his wife and two sons in August 2016. He has since become one of the regime’s most vocal critics. Campaigning under his new South Korean name, Thae Gu-min, he is the first North Korean defector to be elected to the national assembly via a constituency vote. Local media reported he was on course for a comfortable victory in the affluent Gangnam district of Seoul.