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6/25/2020 Details of 1996 (Gyo-Tsu) 28 | Judgments of the Supreme Court the Act, also by conﬁrming, with a document submitted under the provision of Article 50, paragraph (5), that the person continues to hold a domicile within the area of the prefecture), that the voter who has made the request is unable to go to the voting place and vote in person on the date of election for any of the grounds listed in the items of Article 49, paragraph (1) of the Act, he/she shall take the following measures to deliver and send a voting slip and envelope for voting immediately (in cases where the chairperson has received the request prior to the date of public notice or announcement of the date of election, immediately after the date of public notice or announcement of the date of election (or, in the case of sending by mail, immediately after the date speciﬁed by the municipal election administration commission prior to said date of public notice or announcement). In this case, the type and date of the election in question shall be written on the surface of the envelope for voting: (i) In the case referred to in Article 50, paragraph (1), delivering the items to the voter in person or sending them to the voter by mail. (ii) In the case referred to in Article 50, paragraph (4), delivering the items or sending them by mail to the voting administrator for the absentee voting in question or agent thereof. Article 56, paragraph (2) of the Order for Enforcement of the Public Oﬃces Election Act (2) In the case referred to in the preceding paragraph, the absentee voting administrator shall have a person with the right to vote observe the absentee voting. Article 59-4, paragraph (3) of the Order for Enforcement of the Public Oﬃces Election Act (3) Where the chairperson of a municipal election administration commission has received a request under the provision of paragraph (1), when he/she ﬁnds, by checking the request against the electoral register to be used for the election in question or extract thereof (in an election of members of the council of a prefecture or the head of a prefecture, with regard to a person who has the right to vote in the election under the provision of Article 9, paragraph (3) of the Act, also by conﬁrming, with a document submitted under the provision of the preceding paragraph, that the person continues to hold a domicile within the area of the prefecture), that the voter who has made the request falls under any of the categories of voters prescribed in Article 49, paragraph (2) of the Act, he/she shall send a voting slip and envelope for voting to the voter in question by mail immediately (in cases where the chairperson has received the request prior to the date of public notice or announcement of the date of election, immediately after the date speciﬁed by the municipal election administration commission prior to said date of public notice or announcement of the date of election). In this case, the type and date of the election in question shall be written on the surface of the envelope for voting. Article 10-5 of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Public Oﬃces Election Act An envelope for voting under the provision of Article 59-4, paragraph (3) of the Order shall be prepared in accordance with Appended Form No. 13-7. The ﬁnal appeal ﬁled against the appellees of ﬁnal appeal other than those indicated in Lists of the Dead I and II is dismissed. The appellants of ﬁnal appeal shall bear the cost of the ﬁnal appeal with regard to the ﬁnal appeal mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The judgment of prior instance is quashed with respect to the part Main text of the judgment (decision) concerning the claims made by the appellees of ﬁnal appeal indicated in List of the Dead I. The part of this suit concerning the claims made by the appellees of ﬁnal appeal indicated in Lists of the Dead I and II was terminated by reason of the death of the appellees of ﬁnal appeal indicated in said lists on the respective dates indicated in said lists. https://www.courts.go.jp/app/hanrei_en/detail?id=262 3/8

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1996 (Gyo Tsu) 28 [Judgment of the Second Petty Bench, partially dismissed, partially quashed, and partially terminated]

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether denying absentee ballots to voters outside of the country for official ballots is sufficient to dispute the election result.

Alleged Acts: When a voter is outside of the municipality on the election date for unavoidable business that individual qualifies for an absentee ballot. The chairperson must examine those ballot to determine whether they classify as unavoidable business.1,713 absentee ballots of 17,512 total votes were cast. 293 voters cast absentee ballots stating that they were unable to go to the voting place of election day without additional explanation. The voters failed to mention the purposes of that trip so the court could assess whether they were classified as municipal business. In order to be defined as unavoidable business the trip must be difficult to reschedule or a courtesy according to socially accepted ideas. The chairman failed to require additional explanation into the need for an absentee ballot.

Summary: The court determined that the administration failed to provide proper training on absentee ballots and how to deal with them. Thus, the inexperienced voters did not look to whether the voter met the unavoidable business standard. 56 of those absentee ballots clearly failed to meet the threshold. 612 lack sufficient information to determine whether the threshold was met. 18 absentee ballots were counted without corresponding names. In the election the share of absentee ballots for the winning candidate was 12.5%. The share of absentee ballots for the defeated candidate was 6.5%. The court stated that absentee ballots were avaliable in exception cases to diminish the risk of voter fraud. The court found the number of absentee ballots and training failures sufficient to question the overall fairness of the voting process. The court notably reach this conclusion even though — after excluding the arguably valid absentee ballots — the number of ballots in question was less than the victory margin. Further, the number released after the election exceeded the total number of electors by 16 votes.

Conclusion: The impact of the voting disparity were severe enough to question the fairness of the election. The court determined that the disparities were likely to change the outcome of the election.

Legal Issue(s)

Disputing Results
Electoral Integrity

Region: Asia-Pacific

Country: Japan

Language of Decision

English

Court: Supreme Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: May 31, 1996

Geolocation

Latitude: 35.73293062845158

Longitude: 139.75537618376217

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

1996 (Gyo-Tsu) 28 _ Judgments of the Supreme Court.pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

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1996 (Gyo Tsu) 28 [Judgment of the Second Petty Bench, partially dismissed, partially quashed, and partially terminated]

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