Off to Vote

Well, I'm going to go see if they'll let me vote--the station's only twenty metres from my door, so it can't hurt to try.

The problem, though, is who to vote for. My wife and I perused the pamphlets that came to our door on Monday, and weren't really impressed by any of them. Most of them said they would work hard, they would solve all sorts of local problems, but offered very few details on how they plan to cure all our ills. One candidate from a major party (election laws restrain me from naming the candidate or the party ) wrote several pages about how terrible the current provincial governor is, but only a few short lines about what he would do different.

Only one candidate for mayor took the time to put any real detail to his platform. I don't agree with everything he plans to do, but I'll probably vote for him, if for no other reason than that he seems intent on actually doing his job rather than wasting his (and our) resources politicking.

Another problem is that we have to choose 6 different representative, but there is information available for only a few of them, so we have no idea about half of the candidates. I can't blame the local voter apathy--there are too many choices, and too little information.

My inlaws have told us repeatedly to "pick number 2" on all ballots, the party of their choice. I'm fed up with party politics in Korea, so I'll probably vote for candidates who aren't aligned with any party. I think the "Jesse Ventura" types, whether we like them or not, are more likely to have read the job description that goes with the title.

I'll update when I get back!