Special counsel probing the NEC: “Hourly voter counts falsely entered at 30 locations nationwide” ... Search-and-seizure operations at 7 sites

[Financial News] The special counsel team investigating the National Election Commission (NEC), led by Special Counsel Lee Tae-han, said it had confirmed that hourly voter counts were falsely entered at NEC offices in 30 cities, counties and districts nationwide during the June 3 local elections.
On the 15th, the special counsel team announced that, in addition to the five locations previously identified by the joint prosecution-police investigation headquarters—Seocho and Gangnam districts in Seoul, Gimpo and Uiwang cities in Gyeonggi Province, and Jincheon County in North Chungcheong Province—it had confirmed false entries of real-time hourly voter counts in the election management system and the voting and counting reporting system at NEC offices in 25 more areas nationwide.
The additional locations identified were Guro, Mapo and Seongbuk districts in Seoul; Guri, Pyeongtaek, Suwon, Yongin, Seongnam, Namyangju, Yeoju and Dongducheon cities in Gyeonggi Province; Cheongju City in North Chungcheong Province; and the Seobuk and Dongnam districts of Cheonan City and Geumsan County in South Chungcheong Province. Also included were Nam District in Busan; Changwon City in South Gyeongsang Province; Buk District in Gwangju; Mokpo and Gwangyang cities and Hwasun County in South Jeolla Province; Chuncheon, Jeongseon and Hwacheon in Gangwon Province; and Seogwipo City on Jeju Island.
For several weeks, the special counsel team kept forensic investigators at NEC headquarters to analyze log data on hourly voter counts at polling stations nationwide. It also questioned around 70 officials from town-, township-, neighborhood-, city-, county- and district-level NEC offices who had been responsible for reporting real-time turnout during the local elections.
According to the special counsel team, investigators found cases in some areas where, after the incorrectly entered voter count for a particular time slot exceeded the actual final number of voters, the overall figures were subsequently revised again to false numbers. They also found that in some cases, the erroneous figure was left unchanged and the same value or figures increasing by a fixed amount were entered for later time slots.
Since 9:10 a.m. that day, the special counsel team has been conducting searches and seizures at seven locations: NEC headquarters; NEC offices in four provincial or metropolitan jurisdictions—South Chungcheong, Jeonnam-Gwangju, South Gyeongsang and Gangwon; and the NEC offices in Nam District, Busan, and Seogwipo City, Jeju. A total of 31 personnel were deployed: three prosecutors, 20 investigators and eight digital forensics specialists.
The special counsel team said, “The falsely entered hourly voter counts were announced to the public as real-time voter turnout information,” and characterized it as “a serious crime that undermines public confidence in the fairness and transparency of elections and could cause distrust in the electoral system itself.”
The special counsel plans to focus its investigative efforts on clearly establishing the causes and scale of the false entries, the scope of organized involvement, and where responsibility lies.
 
[email protected] Choi Eun-sol Reporter