[The polling station at San Jose opened between May 22nd and May 24th. Photo Credit: Yujun Lee]

Overseas voting for South Korea’s 2025 presidential election began on May 22 at the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) Silicon Valley in San Jose, giving eligible Korean citizens living abroad the opportunity to cast their ballots ahead of domestic early and regular voting. 

As this is a presidential election in South Korea, those eligible to participate in voting are Korean citizens who have completed residence registration and possess voting rights.

For overseas voting specifically, citizens who will not be in South Korea during the entire election period, including early voting and regular voting, and citizens who reside overseas and will not visit South Korea during the election period are eligible to vote at overseas polling stations, according to the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco website. 

Unlike citizens residing in South Korea, who are able to vote by simply walking into a polling station with a proof of identification, overseas citizens must first register to vote to become eligible.

Two documents must be completed for registration: the declaration of absence from South Korea, and the registration for overseas voting. 

Once completed, the documents must be submitted either through the National Election Committee (NEC) website, by physical mail, or email to the nearest diplomatic office for processing.

For this election, registration was open from April 4th through April 24th, 2025, making it crucial for overseas voters to prepare early in order to vote.

Eligible voters can then visit the polling station at any point within the designated time period. 

According to the NEC website, there are 182 overseas election committees operating 223 overseas polling stations. 

They are responsible for ensuring voting access for approximately 2.47 million overseas citizens. 

At the San Jose polling station, voting hours were 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

In South Korea, early voting takes place May 29th to May 30th, 2025, and regular voting happens on June 3rd, 2025.

However, overseas voting sessions begin even before early voting in South Korea. 

This is because the votes must be physically transported to South Korea for counting, a process that takes several days. 

In South Korea, a president serves a five-year term, and reelection is constitutionally prohibited. 

The previous president, Yoon Suk Yeol, the 20th president of South Korea, began his term on May 10th, 2022. 

Under normal circumstances, he would have served until 2027, but after being impeached on December 14th, 2024, by the National Assembly, and subsequently removed from office on April 4th, 2025, following a Supreme Court ruling, an early election became necessary. 

The election date was announced by the acting president, Han Duck-soo, on April 8th, 2025.

Since elections represent an opportunity for citizens to exercise their democratic rights, many people take photos to commemorate their participation.

Among them, some are newly eligible voters who turned 18 after the last election, which was the legislative election held in April 2024.

For them, this presidential election is their first electoral experience. 

Sharing new experiences, many posted about their participation on social media platforms such as Instagram.