NEC employee accused of manipulating vote statistics sparks outrage with bizarre explanation: "Wasn't the final turnout what mattered?"

[Financial News] As staff-level employees at the National Election Commission are under investigation on suspicion of manipulating vote statistics in the June 3 local elections, controversy is expected after it emerged that they offered an explanation to the effect that "wasn't it enough to get the final turnout right?"
According to Yonhap News Agency and legal sources on the 24th, the Joint Investigation Headquarters of Prosecutors and Police for uncovering violations of the public's right to vote, led by Kim Tae-hoon, the third deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, secured such statements the previous day from working-level officials at the NEC and the NEC office in Gyeonggi Province.
The joint task force is investigating after detecting that NEC staff members in charge of managing local polling stations during the June 3 local elections arbitrarily altered statistical figures in the election management system to conceal mistakes in entering the number of voters.
If the number of voters was entered incorrectly at a specific polling station, the figures were supposed to be corrected only after receiving instructions from a higher authority and going through re-approval. But in this case, NEC employees allegedly ignored that procedure and manipulated the statistics by entering false numbers at will.
In response, the joint task force searched the NEC headquarters in Gwacheon City, Gyeonggi Province, as well as NEC offices in Songpa District, Gangnam District and Seocho District the previous day and secured related materials.
Officials at the NEC and the NEC office in Gyeonggi Province who were involved in the manipulation were also searched on suspicion of violating public electronic records laws and obstructing official duties.
In particular, NEC employees reportedly admitted to the false-input allegations during the search, but argued that "wasn't the final turnout what mattered?" Their claim was that there was no problem because they had corrected the incorrectly entered voter numbers earlier in the day through what they described as "additional statistical manipulation," ultimately matching the figures.
The investigative team believes that explanation lacks credibility, given that the NEC releases turnout figures by time of day on election day and voters also use that information to decide whether to vote.
The joint task force is continuing its search of the NEC server today, following the operation carried out yesterday.
The secretary-general of the NEC office in Dongjak District will also be questioned as a suspect in connection with the ballot shortage incident.
Separately, three NEC officials are scheduled to be questioned as witnesses over allegations that former NEC Chair Rho Tae-ak took overseas trips for non-business purposes.
[email protected] An Ga-eul Reporter