Kim Jeongseop Gongju Mayoral Candidate's Team Files Complaint Against Polling Company and Internet Media

Suspicions Raised Over Reporting of Poll Results More Than 10 Days Before Survey Conducted

The Democratic Party candidate for Gongju Mayor, Kim Jeongseop, has filed a complaint with the prosecution against a polling company and an internet media outlet for violating the Public Official Election Act by distorting the poll results. / Photo shows the sample of the Gongju mayoral approval poll released by the company and media / Provided by Kim Jeongseop's campaign team

The election campaign headquarters for Kim Jeongseop, the Democratic Party candidate for Gongju Mayor, has filed a complaint with the prosecution against individuals from a polling company and an internet media outlet, alleging that they reported the results of a poll that was never conducted in advance.

According to Kim's campaign, on May 27, they filed a complaint with the Gongju Branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office against the polling company Vision Korea Solutions, the internet media outlet 'All Research' operated by the same company, and two journalists who wrote related articles, on charges of distorting and publishing poll results in violation of the Public Official Election Act.

According to Kim's campaign, All Research published an article on May 10 regarding “approval ratings for the next Gongju Mayor,” reporting that “People Power Party candidate Choi Woncheol leads Kim Jeongseop by 9.4 percentage points.”

The campaign stated that the article was marked as “published at 2:01 p.m. on May 10, 2026.”

However, the article itself stated that “Vision Korea conducted the poll on May 21 and announced the results on May 26,” and included a summary of the poll such as “523 respondents, a response rate of 14.3%, conducted 100% by ARS, and a margin of error of ±4.3 percentage points.”

Kim's campaign argued, “The results of a poll supposedly conducted on May 21 were reported by the internet media outlet more than 10 days before the actual polling date,” calling it “an act of serious distortion and pre-release that is difficult to accept as common sense.”

They further stated, “The article’s content remained unchanged, but the publication date and time were later revised to ‘11:17 a.m. on May 26, 2026,’ and even the author’s name was changed, indicating an attempt to cover up the traces after the fact.”

Kim's campaign submitted related screen captures and materials as evidence, and also notified the Gongju City Election Commission of the incident.

An official from Kim’s campaign office said, “This is an unprecedented case where a distorted poll result with a particular purpose appeared in the media before the actual survey was conducted. We will pursue legal accountability with zero tolerance, including for those who exploited the issue for election campaigning.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.