[Exclusive] It Was Not Just Songpa... Election Commissions in 12 Locations Nationwide Disposed of Ballots and Other Election Materials After Shortage, Raising Concerns Over Post-Election Verification

[Financial News] It has been confirmed that, not only in Songpa District in Seoul, but also at 12 other National Election Commission (NEC) offices nationwide, election-related materials such as ballot storage boxes, poll books and special seals were discarded one after another shortly after the June 3 local elections. As a result, if the need for post-election verification is raised later, there will effectively be no way to check what happened. In the Songpa case, the ballot storage box had been designated as evidence for preservation by the court, but it had already been discarded.
According to the current status of discarded election materials at polling stations affected by ballot shortages, which Financial News obtained on the 23rd through the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Eun-hye, 13 of the 49 NEC offices overseeing the affected polling stations (10 in Seoul, 7 in Busan, 5 in Daegu, 4 in Incheon, 3 in Ulsan, 11 in Gyeonggi Province, 1 in Gangwon Province, 1 in North Chungcheong Province, 1 in Jeonbuk, 3 in Jeollanam-do, 1 in Gyeongbuk and 2 in Gyeongsangnam-do) carried out disposal work between June 4 and June 10.
Earlier, the Songpa District Election Commission drew criticism after discarding the ballot storage box from Jamsil 7-dong Polling Place No. 2 and failing to retrieve it even after the court ordered preservation of evidence. The commission handed the item over to a disposal company around 1 p.m. on the 9th. It then received a call from the court at 1:51 p.m. the same day about preserving evidence, but did not immediately take steps to recover it. After later confirming the formal written notice, it contacted the disposal company, only to find that retrieval was already impossible.
It has also emerged that election-related materials were widely discarded outside Songpa. In Seoul, the Seongbuk, Nowon, Gangseo and Gangnam District Election Commissions carried out disposal work. In Daegu, the Nam-gu and Dalseo District Election Commissions did so, while in Incheon, the Gyeyang District Election Commission also disposed of election materials. In addition, the Ulsan Jung-gu and Nam-gu Election Commissions, the Uijeongbu and Namyangju Election Commissions in Gyeonggi Province, and the Changwon City Seongsan District Election Commission in Gyeongsangnam-do were also found to have discarded related materials immediately after the election.
The items discarded included not only materials normally cleared away after an election, such as small and large voting booth panels and leftover election pamphlets, but also used return envelopes and special seals, all printed materials and election supplies bearing the election name and details, used ballot box locks and locking pins, ballot box lid storage cases, remaining ballot storage boxes, pre-election polling station supply sets, returned voting confirmation slips, spare poll book forms, special seals generated at counting centers, and unfinished documents prepared and used at advance polling stations and counting stations. Many of these could have served as reference materials if questions later arose about the facts or if verification became necessary.
In particular, the Daegu Nam-gu Election Commission, like the Songpa District Election Commission, discarded the remaining ballot storage box. The Gyeyang District Election Commission in Incheon also cleared out all returned voting confirmation slips, spare poll book forms, and unfinished documents from polling and counting stations. The Nowon-gu Election Commission discarded used return envelopes, special seals, ballot box locks and locking pins, and ballot box lid storage cases. The Gangseo District Election Commission was also found to have disposed of special seals, ballot box locks and locking pins, and all election-related printed materials and supplies. The Dalseo District Election Commission in Daegu additionally discarded various election materials, including supply sets for polling stations, while the Ulsan Nam-gu Election Commission was also listed as having cleared out ballot box locks and polling station supply sets.
The ballot shortage incident went beyond a simple administrative mistake and led to on-site court inspections, a constitutional complaint and a criminal complaint. Even so, the fact that a large amount of related material was discarded across the country immediately after the incident has raised concerns that evidence needed to verify the facts may have been preemptively destroyed.
Lawmaker Kim Eun-hye said, "It has been confirmed that the NEC hindered the investigation into the truth by uniformly discarding related materials not only at the Songpa polling station, but also at polling stations across the country where ballot shortages occurred." She added, "An immediate investigation should be launched into suspicions of evidence destruction at the 91 polling stations where ballot shortages occurred, including the Songpa polling station."
 

yesji@fnnews.com Kim Ye-ji Reporter