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Korean voter turnout still low

June 20, 2014

Only 624 in O.C. turned up at the polls in June 3 election in person

Absentee ballots accounted for 85 percent of votes for Koreans

Young Kim celebrates with her supporters after the primary election.

Young Kim celebrates with her supporters after the primary election.

According to the Korean Poll Workers Club, 22.4 percent — 5,064 of 22,575 eligible Korean-born voters in Orange County — came out to the polls during the June 3 election.

Fullerton had the highest number of eligible voters, with 3,817, of which 764 voted. Next was Irvine, with 596 out of 3,597.

Absentee ballots accounted for 85 percent of votes, the club said. Only 624 people turned up at the polls to vote in person.

Goo Ja-yoon, a community program specialist at the O.C. Registrar of Voters, said Korean voter turnout was low for the primaries compared to other communities.

The club reported that Korean voter turnout was higher than both Chinese (20.3 percent) and Hispanic (13.7 percent) voters but fell behind Vietnamese (32.5 percent) voters.

Overall, 24.1 percent of eligible O.C. voters participated in the primary election.