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rights, the Public Official Election Act does not specify detailed measures for the
exercise of political rights of persons with disabilities.
In 2010, the NHRCK expressed opinions to amend the Public Official Election
Act to guarantee the right to vote of persons with visual disabilities by mandating the
creation of campaign bulletin in braille, and recommended the National Election
Commission to devise customized balloting methods for persons with different types
of disabilities so that persons with disabilities vote for themselves.
Regarding persons with mental disabilities, the NHRCK conducted a survey on
the human rights situation of mentally disabled persons residing in mental health
facilities, where 81% of respondents answered that they could not exercise their right
to vote at the June 4th local elections. It also turned out that despite the fact that,
pursuant to the Constitution and Public Officials Election Act, rights to vote has to
be guaranteed unless the disabled persons are under adult guardianship, official
documents related to election that were distributed to mental health hospitals by the
National Election Commission were not delivered to persons with mental disabilities
in mental health facilities.
Question
Is the Government preparing detailed improvement measures to guarantee the
right to vote of persons with disabilities? What are the contents of such measures?
30. Voting Age
The State Reports states that due to the amendment to election related legislations
in 2005, voting age has been lowered from 20 to 19(para. 365). Lowering the voting
age to 19 is encouraging, but some people argue that in order to aggressively
guarantee peoples’ right to vote, voting age has to be further lowered to 18.