Special Counsel Launches Searches Over Alleged Falsification of Polling Records... “Records from Stations Hit by Ballot Shortages Were Filled In After the Fact”

[Financial News] The special counsel team led by Lee Tae-han, which is investigating the ballot shortage and other issues during the June 3 local elections, has uncovered indications that polling station records were falsified after the fact at a minimum of around 40 polling stations nationwide on the orders of the National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC), and has launched an investigation using compulsory measures.
The special counsel team said in a notice to the media on the 4th that it had begun search-and-seizure operations at 9 a.m. that day at 10 departments, including the NEC chairperson’s and secretary-general’s offices, as well as the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission.
Polling station records are official documents that record the management and distribution of ballots, the progress of voting and other matters on election day. They are prepared by local government officials designated as election management officers, among others, sealed after vote counting ends, and retained until the elected candidate’s term ends.
According to the special counsel team, the ballot shortage during the local elections led to so-called “unnumbered ballots”—ballots without printed serial numbers—being distributed to and actually used at around 140 polling stations nationwide. The Public Official Election Act requires serial numbers to be printed on ballots.
The special counsel team uncovered indications that, as demands for accountability over the ballot shortage and election-related litigation were anticipated, the NEC instructed election commissions at all levels nationwide to fill in polling station records after the election and then compiled the results.
Investigators found that the election commissions at various levels that received the instructions arbitrarily entered serial numbers for unnumbered ballots in the polling station records, or added notes in the “Special Notes” section stating that they had anticipated a ballot shortage and requested countermeasures, or that they had received unnumbered ballots, among other details.
The special counsel team found indications of such falsification of polling station records at a minimum of around 40 of the roughly 140 polling stations nationwide that received unnumbered ballots. It suspects that the NEC later submitted the relevant records to the National Assembly and other bodies without disclosing the falsification, despite having compiled them.
The alleged falsification of polling station records is a new suspected offense uncovered by the special counsel team. The search warrant issued that day also included an allegation of dereliction of duty related to the ballot shortage.
The special counsel team deployed a total of 44 personnel: one deputy special counsel, four prosecutors including a senior prosecutor, 14 digital forensics investigators, and 25 investigators. It plans to analyze the seized materials to establish how the polling station records were falsified and where responsibility lies among those involved.
Meanwhile, the special counsel team is also conducting searches of the NEC and other entities in connection with allegations of favoritism in a project to manufacture early-voting ballot-issuing machines and purchase supplies. Earlier, on the 2nd and 3rd, it searched the NEC and other entities over allegations including improper payments of Fair Election Promotion Activity Expenses (Gongchubi).
 



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