Limit of Voting Age

[25-2(A) KCCR 306, 2012Hun-Ma174, July 25, 2013]

In this case, the Constitutional Court of Korea held that Article 15(1) of the Public Official Election Act, which sets the voting age at 19 for Presidential election and National Assembly election, does not infringe on the right to vote, etc. of people under 19 years of age.

Background of the Case

The complainant filed this constitutional complaint on February 23, 2012 when he realized that he will be unable to exercise his voting right for being under 19 years of age as of the election date for the 19th National Assembly Election and the 18th Presidential Election, arguing that Article 15 of the Public Official Election Act, which sets the voting age at 19, infringes on his rights to equality and the right to vote.

Provision at Issue

The subject matter of review is whether Article 15(1) of the Public Official Election Act (amended as Act No. 11071 on November 7, 2011) infringes on the fundamental rights of people under 19 years. The contents of the provision at issue are as follows.

Public Official Election Act (amended by Act No. 11071 on November 7, 2011)

Article 15 (Voting Right)

(1) A national of 19 years of age or above shall have a voting right for the elections of the President and the members of the National Assembly: Provided, That a voting right in the elections of National Assembly members of local constituencies shall only be granted to a national of 19 years of age or above who falls under any of the following subparagraphs, as of the basis date of preparation of the

electoral register pursuant to Article 37(1):

a.A person whose resident registration has been made in the relevant local constituency for the National Assembly;

b.A person whose residence is within the election district of the relevant local constituency for the National Assembly and who has been enrolled in the report register of domestic domicile thereof for not less than three months pursuant to Article 6 (1) of the Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans.

Summary of the Decision

The principle of universal election requires that any person at or above a certain age retain voting rights. The principle, in its presumption, imposes a restriction on the voting right as to people under a specified age, because a certain level of political decision-making ability is a prerequisite for exercising voting rights.

Article 24 of the Constitution prescribes that “[a]ll citizens shall have the right to vote under the conditions as prescribed by Act”, delegating the authority to decide voting age to the legislature.

The legislature decided the voting age to be 19 upon the consideration that minors who are under 19 years are in reality still in the process of forming political and social viewpoints or are practically dependent on parents, teachers or other guardians in their daily lives, and thus cannot be regarded to possess the mental and physical autonomy sufficient enough to make political decisions by themselves.

Although the voting age is set at 18 in many countries, it is a matter to be decided depending on each country's specific situations. Further, the fact that other laws recognize persons at or above 18 years as capable of working or joining the military does not make it necessary to apply the same standard with respect to the ability to exercise a voting

right. We thus cannot say that the legislature's decision to set the voting age at 19 was unreasonable.

Because the legislature did not act unreasonably in excess of its legislative discretionary power in setting the voting age at 19, there was no infringement on the right to vote, etc. of people under19 years of age.

Dissenting Opinion of Three Justices

The legislature would exceed the scope of legislative authority if persons of a certain age, though retaining political decision-making ability, are prevented from exercising their voting rights due to a voting age set at an older age.

Since the last adjustment made to set the voting age at 19, our society has experienced remarkable, unprecedented changes, which prominently heightened the level of political consciousness among people, including young persons. In this context, we should assume that people at an age of completing secondary education possess the ability to make political decisions on their own.

People between the age of 18 and 19, who are at the age of completingsecondary school, develop keen interests in the issues of employment and education and, as a generation most familiar with information and communication technologies, especially the Internet, attain considerable maturity in their political and social decision-making ability. Thus, they should be regarded to have the ability to make political decisions on their own.

Other laws, including the Military Service Act and the Labor Standards Act, recognize that people at or above 18 years have reached the level of mental and physical abilities to participate in the formation

of the State and society. Compared with people at the age of 18 in many other countries that have set the voting age at 18, people at the same age in our country cannot be deemed to be less capable of making political decisions.

Then, the legislature's decision to set the voting age at 19 when people at or above 18 years of age have the ability to make political decisions on their own, exceeds the scope of legislative authority and infringes upon the right to vote, etc. of people between the age of 18 and 19.