The National Election Commission noted that as of 5 p.m. on the 3rd, the voter turnout for the 21st presidential election was provisionally tallied at 73.9%.
Among 44,391,871 registered voters in this presidential election, 32,801,369 have completed their voting.
This includes results reflecting early voting (34.74%), in which 15,423,607 people participated from the 29th to the 30th of last month, as well as the votes from overseas citizens, onboard, and those unable to vote in person. The National Election Commission will publish the aggregated early voting rate on its website starting at 1 p.m.
The current voter turnout is 0.3 percentage points higher than the same time during the 2022 20th presidential election, which had a turnout of 73.6%.
As the aggregated early voting turnout reached the highest level for this time frame in presidential elections, attention is being paid to whether the final turnout will surpass 80% for the first time since the 15th presidential election in 1997. The final turnout for the 19th presidential election, which implemented early voting, was 77.2%, and for the 20th presidential election, it was 77.1%.
The region with the highest voter turnout was Jeollanam-do (80.7%), followed by Gwangju (79.7%) and Jeollbuk-do (79.0%). The lowest turnout was in Jeju (70.1%), followed by Chungcheongnam-do (70.8%) and Chungcheongbuk-do and Busan (71.9%). The voter turnout in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi was reported as 74.1%, 72.3%, and 73.9%, respectively.
Voting for this election will take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 14,295 polling stations nationwide over a period of 14 hours. Unlike early voting, in-person voting can only be done at the polling place according to the voter's registered address. The locations of polling stations can be checked using the voter information guide delivered to each household, through the 'voter registration review system' of local district and city offices, or via the National Election Commission's polling station locator service.
However, if voters are in line at the polling station and receive a waiting number ticket by 8 p.m., they can still cast their vote after the deadline.
Voters must bring a resident registration card, passport, driver's license, youth card, or any photo ID issued by a government office or public institution. The saved images for mobile IDs cannot be used.
The counting of ballots is expected to commence around 8:30 p.m. at 251 counting centers nationwide. The National Election Commission forecasted that the outlines of the winners would become clear around midnight. However, this timing may change depending on the differences in vote counts among candidates.