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South Korea today held one of the world's first major national elections of the coronavirus era. Here's what they did to keep voters safe.
Outside polling stations, mandatory temperature checks using contact-free thermometers.
At the door, lots of free hand sanitizer and mandatory plastic gloves.
Once inside, voters were kept a meter apart.
There was a special voting area for self-isolated voters, who were allowed to cast ballots at designated times late in the afternoon.
Another big thing: South Korea made it easy to vote early. Last week saw record early vote turnout. Which made polling places a lot less congested today.
Maybe the biggest factor: it feels like South Korea has contained the coronavirus so far. New infections have plummeted. People were confident they could vote safely.
It wasn't perfect, of course. About half of overseas South Koreans were unable to vote because of coronavirus lockdowns in their countries of residence.
But the end result was amazing: voter turnout was the highest it's been in a lot of years, at least for a parliamentary election.
I have to again point to this really nice mini-thread by @SangShinLee. Sums up the whole deal. https://twitter.com/SangShinLee/status/1249831598444314624
Final voter turnout in South Korea's parliamentary election is 66.2 percent, the highest turnout in 28 years, according to National Election Commission figures cited by Yonhap.
