In the first
week of September, the NEC sent a representative to participate in the European
Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference in Oslo for the
first time to introduce the Korean early voting system in the section of the
conference focused on election administration. As one of the largest academic
events for political scientists and practitioners in Europe, this was a chance
for the NEC to introduce aspects of Koreans election administration to a wider
audience and build partnerships to improve election administration both in
Korea and around the world.
ECPR was
established back in 1970 and has thousands of members from over 350
organizations that span 50 countries. It brings together academics and
researchers in political science, providing networking, support and teaching or
research resources, encouraging cross-national cooperation in a variety of
fields. Its most important yearly event is the General Conference, a three-day
event in which senior academics, researchers and practitioners present their
research. This year’s conference was held in Oslo, Norway from Thursday
September 7 to Saturday 9.
This year for
the first time there was a session on election administration consisting of
three panels on Saturday. It was organized by the newly formed Electoral
Management Research Network (www.electoralmanagement.com), a group of
researchers focused on electoral management across the world spearheaded by professors
Toby S. James (University of East Anglia), Holly Ann Garnett (McGill
University), Leontine Loeber (University of East Anglia) and Carolien van Ham
(University of New South Wales). Each panel featured between three and five
presentations of papers written on election management by professors,
researchers, practitioners from international organizations and Luke Butcher
from the Administration and International Affairs Division of the NEC!
Each presenter
spoke for 15 minutes on the topic of their research, explaining their findings
and the possible ramifications or their work. There were then comments from a
discussant, who gave advice to each of the presenters in the panel regarding
their papers and research. Finally there was a question and answer session where
other participants could give their views on the main topic. Luke Butcher from
the NEC spoke in the panel entitled ‘Building Human, Technological and
Financial Resources in Election Management’ talking about his paper ‘The Effectiveness
of Early Voting – A Case Study of the Republic of Korea.’ Hopefully this paper
will be made publicly available in the future.
The conference
gave the NEC a great opportunity to take in the very best in research from
European scholars on various important issues in politics including social
media’s effect on the political sphere, preventing so-called ‘democratic
backsliding’ in emerging democracies and the changing face of political
parties. In addition, the panels on election management and the papers written
for them provided information on election management that will benefit the NEC.
Finally, our member of staff was able to present on the early voting system in
Korea, showcasing some its main features and discussing its effectiveness, ensuring
more election management professionals are aware on the how elections work in
Korea and promoting cooperation in the future.
Over the three
days, our representative was able to take part in 12 panels and roundtables and
other participant were interested in the unique early voting system in Korea
that allows people to vote from anywhere around the country. This system is part of the NEC’s continued
efforts to ensure a modern and applicable election management system that
allows all registered voters to cast their ballot as conveniently as possible.
This month the
NEC is also observing elections in Norway, Germany and Switzerland as part of
its ongoing efforts to improve the capacity and experience of NEC staff and
expand the NEC’s international cooperation. The NEC seeks to work with other
EMBs as well as election-related experts and researchers to develop election
systems in Korea and around the world.
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