Election Fraud: Stop Abuse of Absentee System at Elderly Care Facilities

Editorial

13:59 JST, November 1, 2025

It would be unacceptable for a voting system established for voters residing in elderly care facilities or hospitals to become a hot bed for fraud. Oversight mechanisms must be strengthened against such abuse to ensure fair elections.

The Osaka prefectural police have sent papers to prosecutors pertaining to the male manager and two female workers of an operating company for nursing homes on suspicion of voting fraud in violation of the Public Offices Election Law, on the grounds that the three suspects allegedly impersonated 35 nursing home residents and fraudulently cast absentee ballots in the House of Councillors election in July.

For individuals in care facilities or hospitals who cannot visit polling stations, there is an absentee voting system that allows them to cast votes within their facilities.

Under the system, the facility director normally acts as an election “administrator,” requesting ballots from the election commission. Residents write the name of their choice of candidate in the presence of “observers,” and the administrator sends the ballots back to the commission.

The man and the other two suspects are alleged to have abused the system by casting votes on behalf of the residents without their consent. It is strongly suspected that the man acted as the administrator and that no observers were present.

It is believed that they wrote on the ballots the name of an executive from an association of care providers who was running in the proportional representation segment in the upper house election under the Liberal Democratic Party’s official ticket. Although the executive lost the election, the act can only be described as one of malicious fraud that distorted an election, the very foundation of democracy.

One resident who went to the polling station was reportedly told, “Your vote has already been cast.” Without such an incident, detecting the fraud might have been difficult.

In recent national elections, partly due to an aging population, the number of absentee votes cast at such facilities has reached around 300,000. Fraudulent voting involving a few voters per facility has occurred across the nation, with prominent methods including staff pretending to be residents with dementia and casting votes.

A 2013 revision to the law included a provision requiring outside observers, such as leaders from neighborhood associations, to be present during absentee voting. However, since the provision is only a nonbinding goal, actual use of outside observers remains low. It is undeniable that the system’s laxity invites fraud.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry should strive to promote the use of outside observers. It is also essential for local governments to take strict measures such as imposing administrative penalties on facilities that commit fraud.

Finding people willing to serve as observers is reportedly a challenge. There are over 20,000 facilities designated to be allowed to serve as polling stations nationwide. Sending observers to every single one of them for every election can hardly be considered realistic.

Some early voting locations have introduced a method in which observers oversee voting online via monitors. How about adopting such a method at the facilities, too?

In our very aged society, the number of people who want to vote but cannot get to a polling station is expected to increase. We must create an environment where everyone can vote easily and election fairness is secured.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 1, 2025)