Postal voting system for COVID-19 patients not so widespread ahead of Japan election

FUKUOKA — Japan will soon have its first general election adopting a postal voting system introduced in June that allows COVID-19 patients to cast ballots without violating requests to refrain from going out.

Though the number of new daily infections has been on the decline, over 5,000 people had still been recuperating from COVID-19 at home or in accommodation facilities, as of Oct. 12. However, this “postal ballot system for exceptional cases” had seen very limited use in large-scale elections since June, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, and there have been challenges in making it well known.

On Oct. 14, the day that the House of Representatives was dissolved, a staff member at the Fukuoka Prefectural Government’s Itoshima office for health and welfare was inserting flyers which offered information on the postal ballot system into envelopes to be sent to coronavirus patients opting to recuperate at home. Along with the flyers, pulse oximeters that clip on the finger to measure blood oxygen saturation levels were also being placed inside envelopes. The staff member said, “We’d like to expend every possible means to ensure voting opportunities for people even if they are infected with the coronavirus.”

While the Public Offices Election Act allows people with severe physical disabilities and those requiring heavy nursing care to send votes by mail, individuals who contract the coronavirus and are asked to refrain from going out of their homes or hotels had not been eligible for the postal ballot system. Therefore, legislation regarding postal voting was introduced by members of the Diet and enacted in June.

Voters who wish to use the postal ballot system mail a request form to the election council of their municipality no later than four days prior to the polling day. They can then cast their vote by filling in a set of ballots sent to homes or hotels and sending them back to their respective election councils. Using mail-in ballots, voters can partake in all three types of voting for single-seat constituencies, the proportional representation bloc, and the national review of Supreme Court justices — the same as in general voting in person.

However, in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on July 4, when the system was adopted for the first time, only 110 of 2,088 eligible voters used it, while as few as 47 out of 7,883 eligible voters took advantage of the system for the Yokohama mayoral election on Aug. 22, which took place amid a sudden surge in infections.

A representative of the Yokohama election council commented, “Making the system well known is the largest challenge. It is necessary to increase its recognition even outside election periods.” Election councils across Japan have been working to raise public awareness of the postal ballot system, ahead of the lower house election. The Kitakyushu election council provided guidance on the system in bold letters on admission tickets to enter polling stations, which it sent to some 790,000 voters.

Meanwhile, fundamental problems have also emerged as COVID-19 patients recovering at home, who are asked to refrain from going out, must go outside to post relevant forms and ballots. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications contacted prefectural election councils and other bodies in June, instructing them to have recovering patients “ask those living with them or acquaintances to post the letters on their behalf,” as well as have election council staff members post the ballots themselves, in the event that there are voters claiming that they cannot have them posted as they live alone, among other factors. The ministry told the election councils to “consider measures based on actual local circumstances.” In response to this, a representative of one election council said, “Election councils juggle other tasks among few people. It’s difficult to take such measures if there are many COVID-19 patients.”

Kazunori Kawamura, associate professor of political science at Tohoku University’s graduate school, who is familiar with voting systems, pointed out, “The ‘postal voting system for exceptional cases’ was made as an emergency measure, and it is an extension of postal voting systems adopted until now, which use mail to file applications. As voting issues have been brought to the fore amid the coronavirus pandemic, discussion should be pushed forward to digitize elections by introducing electronic voting and other endeavors.”

(Japanese original by Masashi Yomogida, Kyushu News Department)