Key facts
- Patterns suggesting manipulation of voter turnout rates during the June 3 local elections have been observed across polling stations in Gyeonggi Province.
- Analysis of voter numbers and turnout data revealed suspicious patterns in cities including Pyeongtaek and Dongducheon.
- A prosecution-police task force raided the National Election Commission (NEC) headquarters in connection with the investigation.
- Chat messages between an NEC official and an election worker suggested collusion to fix voter numbers.
- The NEC attributed the discrepancies to errors in inputting hourly voter numbers, stating total counts remained unchanged.
- The ballot shortage issue on Election Day forced some voters to leave without casting their ballots.
Patterns suggesting manipulation of voter turnout rates during the June 3 local elections have emerged across polling stations in Gyeonggi Province, potentially broadening an investigation into ballot shortages that occurred on the same day. Yonhap News Agency analyzed voter numbers and turnout data from polling stations throughout the province, which surrounds Seoul.
The analysis, based on data provided by Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the main opposition People Power Party, indicated that in addition to Gimpo and Uiwang, where the National Election Commission (NEC) has already identified errors in turnout rates, multiple other polling stations may have manipulated their figures. For instance, a polling station in Shinpyeong-dong, Pyeongtaek, reported 772 ballots cast by 9 a.m., which significantly increased to 1,320 by 10 a.m. but remained unchanged for five hours until 3 p.m. A similar anomaly was observed in Dongducheon's Sangpae-dong, where ballot counts showed no change between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. after reaching 784 by 1 p.m. These patterns were also detected in Guri, Yeoju, Seongnam, Ansan, and Goyang.
These findings come as a prosecution-police task force investigating ballot shortages raided the NEC headquarters last week. The raid followed the discovery of chat messages between an NEC official and a Gimpo-based election worker, which suggested collusion to manipulate voter numbers. The NEC has since stated that errors in inputting hourly voter numbers occurred in certain districts and were corrected without altering the final total counts. The ballot shortage issue was highly controversial, forcing some voters to leave without casting their ballots. The task force was established on June 9 at the order of President Lee Jae Myung.