The National Election Commission held a Consultation Committee Working Group Meeting on the Security in Voting and Counting for the 18^th Presidential Election. Various ways to reinforce the security of voting and counting systems such as the optical ballot counting scanner, shield fax for shipboard voting, etc. were discussed at this meeting.

The meeting held to follow up the Consultation Conference on Voting and Counting on August 3 was attended by the following 8 persons:

Technical experts recommended by 4 political parties including the Saenuri, Democratic United, United Progressive and Advancement & Unification Party and agencies such as the National Information Society Agency, Korea Internet Security Agency, National IT Industry Promotion Agency and Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice along with executives recommended by the Federation of Seafarers’ Unions.

The NEC provided an explanation and demonstration of the operation procedure and the security system for the optical ballot counting scanner and the shield fax for shipboard voting. The NEC also made disclosure of the operational program source code for the optical ballot counting scanner. The technical professionals who attended the meeting exchanged various opinions on how to strengthen the security system.

The optical ballot counting scanner functions as an auxiliary device for counting by sorting and counting ballots per candidate.

Also at the meeting, the NEC and the technical experts agreed to involve expert members of the political parties that have a negotiation group in the Assembly in creating an encrypted key for the optical scanner operational program and the shield fax for shipboard voting servers.

According to the NEC, “Security Consultation Committee” has been established comprising political parties and IT-related associations/organizations to provide consultation on the security of the voting & counting management system. It is also expected that the operation of “Security Consultation Committee” will help to build up trust in fair voting and counting and spread a culture of transparent elections.