Filmmaker looks to Taiwan's manual ballot counting as solution to end stolen vote controversy

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Documentary 'Your Vote Is In Danger' revisits stolen vote controversy, addresses risks of foreign governments' meddling in local elections

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Taiwan has become a source of inspiration for filmmaker Kim Deog-young for his documentary titled, "Your Vote Is In Danger," released on April 15.

Also known by the stage name Young Kim, the filmmaker visited Taipei last year for the local elections held on Nov. 26 to learn about the island country's voting system.

Kim said the field trip was mind-boggling.

"It was very educational," he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. "I learned a lot, particularly about the risks of high-tech elections."

No electronic device is used to cast and count ballots in Taiwan, he said.

Like South Korea, Taiwanese voters cast their votes by marking their favorite candidates on a paper ballot.

However, the two countries adopted different counting methods. In South Korea, electronic vote-counting machines are used to classify marked ballots according to candidate, which are later double-checked by election staffers before final tallies are confirmed.

In Taiwan, all ballots are counted by hand.

Taiwan's tech-free elections reflect the Taiwanese people's deep concern about possible meddling by China in their election results, which, if realized, can distort voters' choices.

"Like South Korea, Taiwan is one of the world's leading countries in information technology. But in elections, there is no technology involved, because that can make elections become prone to cyberattacks from foreign governments," Kim said.

The wariness of Taiwanese people to possible foreign intervention in their elections also created a practice of turning polling stations into ballot counting centers after voting, according to Kim.

At 6 p.m. when voting ends, a polling station set up at a local elementary school classroom in Taipei turned into a vote-counting room. Unlike in South Korea, ballot boxes were not moved to other places. Election staffers and volunteers opened ballot boxes in the classrooms to count votes.

The practice of voting and counting in the same place was introduced to prevent possible malicious interventions in elections, according to Kim.

The filmmaker described in detail how votes are counted.

An election staff member upheld each and every marked ballot over her head to show it to others in the counting room and named the candidate chosen by a voter. Another staff member wrote down how many votes each candidate obtained and changed their numbers whenever new marked ballot sheets were announced. They repeated the same action until all of the ballots were counted.

"Manual counting takes time, but the old-fashioned way of counting votes is transparent and leaves little room for post-election disputes over irregularities," Kim said. "I was struck by the unique election landscape in Taiwan and it opened my eyes to the risks of high-tech elections and cyberattacks from foreign countries."

Kim arrived in Taipei a couple of days before election day. On his first day in Taiwan, he said the country's foreign minister held a news conference to warn China against any malicious attempts to interfere in Taiwan's local elections. The next day, Taiwan's digital minister met foreign correspondents for another news conference to reiterate the same message to China.

"Can you imagine that every day, Taiwanese government agencies receive 5 million cyberattacks from China? That is according to official data from Taiwan's defense ministry," Kim said.

To prevent any controversy stemming from China's possible cyberattacks, he said Taiwan introduced the tech-free election system.

Filmmaker Kim Deog-young / Courtesy of Kim Deog-young

Inspired by his Taipei trip, Kim was determined to produce a documentary to share the lessons he learned from Taiwan. To look into the election systems of other countries, Kim also traveled to Germany and the United States, which together with Taiwan, have shared experiences in post-election protests over vote results.

"Your Vote Is In Danger" revisits the stolen vote controversy in South Korea to find the root causes of post-election disputes about vote rigging allegations.

The stolen vote allegation erupted after the 2020 National Assembly election that resulted in a landslide victory for the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), which was the ruling party at the time after winning 180 seats in the general election where 300 seats were up for grabs.

There was a big discrepancy in the results between early voting and Election Day voting, triggering suspicions among some conservative activists. Electronic vote-counting machines used by the National Election Commission (NEC) were at the center of controversy.

Later, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the election watchdog, dismissing the plaintiff's claim of vote rigging.

"Your Vote Is In Danger" explores how other countries that have experienced similar post-election disputes responded to the allegations or took preventive measures.

Based on his findings, Kim concludes that there are still questions that remain unanswered despite the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of the election watchdog.

The documentary premiered at the National Assembly on April 15 to mark the third anniversary of the 2020 general election. The movie is now available on YouTube.

Cybersecurity in elections has emerged as a key issue in South Korea recently as the nation will hold a general election next year.

In May, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the election watchdog's website had become the target of multiple North Korean cyberattacks in the last two years, recommending the NEC receive a cybersecurity checkup from the NIS.

The NEC initially rejected the offer, expressing worries about potentially unnecessary political implications of the spy agency's involvement in the election watchdog. But the election watchdog agreed later to receive a cybersecurity checkup by the NIS in collaboration with the Korea Internet and Security Agency.

That has added pressure on the embattled election watchdog, which has been hit by nepotism allegations.

Several former and incumbent high-ranking officials of the NEC have been accused of exercising their influence to help their children get jobs at the election watchdog.

On Thursday, the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition DPK agreed to launch a bipartisan committee to inspect the alleged irregularities in the election watchdog and its vulnerabilities to cyberattacks.

Cho Jin-man, a professor of political science at Deoksung Women's University, said the credibility of the election watchdog is being questioned.

"Mass resignations of the election watchdog's key post holders to take responsibility for the allegations won't help it regain the public's trust," he said.

Cho, also an advisor to the NEC, said more fundamental measures are required.

"The problem is that people don't trust the NEC's capabilities of managing and operating elections. Therefore, it's time to discuss how we can improve our election system to make it more transparent and fair to prevent the recurrence of the stolen vote controversy. Scrapping early voting and removing electronic vote-counting machines could be put on the table because they are at the center of controversy," he said.

Supporters of Taipei city mayoral candidate Wayne Chiang of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party cheer in Taipei, Taiwan, Nov. 26, 2022. AP-Yonhap