Officials Busy Setting up Polling Stations for Lower House Snap Election; Rezoned Districts Particularly Under Pressure

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:27 JST, October 26, 2024

While a “super-short campaign period” kicked off a flurry of activity in campaigning for Sunday’s House of Representatives election, local election commissions were under pressure to set up polling and vote-counting sites ahead of the day.

Redistricting has resulted in some municipalities seeing an increase in the number of polling stations under their management, and the rush to get prepared will continue until right before the public goes to the polls.

In Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, work to set up polling stations started simultaneously at 61 locations on Friday.

At Matsue No. 3 Junior High School, work began around 5 p.m., after routine work at the school had ended. About 10 ward office staff members brought ballot boxes, polling booths and other equipment to the gymnasium and hastily set them up in accordance with a layout plan.

A site to count the votes is scheduled to be set up on Sunday, when the count begins.

Most communities in Edogawa Ward were formerly within Tokyo Constituency No. 16. However, due to the rezoning of small electoral districts, the northern part of the ward has been incorporated into Tokyo Constituency No. 14.

As a result, vote counting for Constituency No. 14 will be carried out in the archery hall attached to the ward’s general gymnasium, while votes for Constituency No. 16 will be counted in the main arena on the second floor of the gymnasium.

As both venues were booked for other purposes until Saturday, the ward’s election administration commission was to boost staff numbers on the day of the election by 20% compared with the previous election and split them into two teams to expedite the work.

“This will be the first lower house election held following the redistricting, and our prep time has been short. However, we will see to it that voting and vote counting are carried out fairly and without mistakes. We will do our best with the preparations and brace ourselves for election day,” said an official at the ward’s election administration commission.

In Suginami Ward, where communities were divided into Tokyo Constituency No. 8 and Tokyo Constituency No. 27 in the rezoning, the ward office secured a gymnasium in the Koenji district for use as a vote-counting station in addition to the Ogikubo district gymnasium that is usually used.

The ward office has temporarily closed the two facilities since Thursday to begin setting up. On Friday, ward office staff worked on the layout and checked that the machines work. Detailed checks continued Saturday.

“It’s tough, as the workload for setting up the venues has doubled, but we will manage to get things ready in time for the day of the count,” said an official at the election administration commission.