The Korea Daily is partnering with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters to host a voting location at its headquarters (690 Wilshire Pl.) for the November presidential election, the first Korean-American media organization to do so.
The vote center will be located in the basement auditorium of the Korea Daily’s headquarters in Koreatown. It will be open for early voting on November 2-4 and in-person voting on November 5. Any voter in the county is free to walk in and vote. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day. The Registrar of Voters will provide additional information about voting place hours in the coming days.
The Korea Daily’s voting center will be staffed by two election officials, five to seven volunteers, and Korean interpreters to help voters cast their ballots.
“By establishing a voting place in the center of Koreatown, it is highly accessible, and we expect this will encourage Korean Americans and the county’s other residents to vote and strengthen their political power,” said Yoonho Nahm, CEO of the Korea Daily.
“We’ve been working hard to find a prominent location in Koreatown to host a voting center, and we’re thrilled to be able to use the Korea Daily building,” said the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters. “We hope this will encourage more businesses and organizations to host a voting location and help Korean American voters participate in the polls.”
According to the county’s Registrar of Voters, ballots cast from November 2-5 that are not voted online will be transported to the scheduled processing center on the morning of November 6 to be counted. County officials say the number of polling locations varies for each election, but for the presidential election, the county offers more than 800 voting places and mail-in ballot drop-off locations.
While the pandemic has led to an overall increase in vote-by-mail, the number of voters who make their voices heard through early voting or in-person voting on election day still ranges from 30 to 50% of all eligible voters.
BY BRIAN CHOI, HOONSIK WOO [choi.inseong@koreadaily.com]
