Seoulites visit extraordinary polling stations in bakeries, playgrounds and parking garages — in pictures
2026.06.03 17:19
Voters walked into a bakery, a car dealership and Korean barbecue restaurant only to find ballot boxes on Wednesday for the June 3 local elections.
Extraordinary polling stations were set up across the greater Seoul area to enable voters to cast ballots right in their neighborhoods without traveling great distances.
A bakery was transformed into a polling station for Suyu-dong in Gangbuk District in northern Seoul. Lighting fixtures and menu boards had been pushed into a corner, while tables and chairs normally used by customers were repurposed for election workers. Behind the voting booths were bakery ovens and menu boards draped in fabric.
Many voters arriving at the unconventional polling sites paused before entering the venue. Some doubted whether they could “actually vote inside the bakery.”
“We’ve lived here for 30 years, and this is the first time we’ve voted somewhere like this,” an older couple said after casting their ballots.
“It is astonishing to see that a bakery that I had previously placed delivery orders a few times have transformed into a polling venue,” said Kang, a Suyu-dong voter. “I appreciate the bakery owner for whom it might not have been easy to lend the space, so I really appreciate that.”
“I would rather not vote,” the voter said after waiting for more than 10 minutes for their polling booth to be set up.
An election official apologized. “We weren’t fully prepared because the space has been normally used for other purposes, and we apologize for the inconvenience,” the official said.
The underground venue was the Haengun-dong No. 2 polling station with seven booths installed. Each booth occupied a single parking space. Election observers and staff sat behind the garage’s concrete pillars. About 20 voters stood in line to cast their ballots when a JoongAng Ilbo reporter visited on Wednesday morning.
Several eligible voters stopped election workers in the alley leading to the garage to ask whether it was the correct polling site for the Bongcheon-dong neighborhood. Bongcheon-dong covers the Haengun-dong area, according to the district’s website.
“It is refreshing to vote at an underground parking garage,” voter Kim Ha-yeong said. “Regardless of political orientation, I’m going to vote for the person who can do the job well.”
In eastern Seoul’s Gwangjin District, a Kia dealership was converted into the No. 3 polling station for Neung-dong. Four voting booths stood beside three vehicles lined up inside the showroom.
Elsewhere, a driver’s license exam center in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, served as a polling station. In Gyeonggi’s Gwangmyeong, a barbecue restaurant was also repurposed for voting. Across the country, wedding halls, auto repair shops, traditional Korean wrestling arenas and taekwondo gyms likewise opened their doors as polling stations.
Although polling stations are generally established in state-run facilities, occasionally private facilities may be designated when suitable public spaces are unavailable, according to the Public Official Election Act. Businesses forced to suspend operations due to the election receive a modest rental fee or compensation from the National Election Commission on the day of the election and the preceding day.
As of 5 p.m., voter turnout in the June 3 local elections stood at 57.4 percent. Wednesday's voting takes place at 14,288 polling stations nationwide.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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