Fact-Finding Committee: "Only 2,000 Ballots Delivered to Songpa-gu When 17,000 Were Required"

Distributed at Only One-Tenth of the Required Amount
"Confusion Due to Lack of Manual for Assigning Serial Numbers"

The so-called "unnumbered ballots," which are used when there is a shortage of ballots during the June 3 local elections, were found to have been distributed at only one-tenth of the quantity required by regulations.

Cho Hyunwook, the chair of the Ballot Shortage Incident Fact-Finding Committee, stated in a briefing after a meeting at the Gwacheon office of the Gyeonggi Provincial Election Commission on June 11, "Seventeen thousand unnumbered ballots should have been delivered to the Songpa-gu Election Commission, where the ballot shortage occurred, but only 2,000 were provided."

According to the Manual for Public Election Procedures, spare unnumbered ballots without serial numbers must be printed in a quantity equal to about 3% of the total number of eligible voters. Applying the 3% rule to the number of voters in Songpa-gu (564,438) means that 17,000 unnumbered ballots should have been printed.

On the 11th, citizens protesting the lockdown of the Jamsil ballot counting center shouted slogans demanding a re-election at the Handball Gymnasium in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul. 2026.06.11 Photo by Dongjoo Yoon

Regarding this, Chair Cho explained, "In previous elections as well, unnumbered ballots amounting to around 3% were distributed, but the Seoul Election Commission instructed the local district and county election commissions to print only 2,000 ballots." He further pointed out, "Songpa-gu decided to reduce the number of printed ballots by 50% through a committee resolution, and if we exclude the 2,000 unnumbered ballots to be added, the reduction rate actually fell short of 50%."

Additionally, Chair Cho stated, "It was confirmed that the additional ballots sent to the Songpa-gu Election Commission included a mix of unnumbered ballots held by the commission and ballots with serial numbers borrowed from nearby polling stations. Of these, 70% were unnumbered ballots."

He emphasized, "After thoroughly checking the (online) chat rooms of Songpa-gu Election Commission staff and committee secretaries and clerks, it became clear that the confusion at the sites was extremely severe due to the ballot shortage, yet the commission failed to respond promptly. The lack of a manual on how to assign serial numbers to unnumbered ballots caused significant confusion and serious election delays."

Chair Cho also said, "There was no manual in place that anticipated the possibility of a ballot shortage. The secretaries or clerks in charge of polling stations are temporarily assigned during elections and are not election experts. Watching their (chat) messages scrambling and not knowing how to respond or handle the shortage, the seriousness of the situation was felt very acutely."

Chair Cho concluded, "I strongly feel that the system needs to be improved," adding, "We will focus on examining the Songpa-gu incident at tomorrow’s meeting."

The committee also reviewed materials such as the status of election commission employees on leave, the number of plenary sessions held by the Central Election Commission, the public election manual, and the comprehensive management guidelines for local elections.

The committee has decided to hold meetings every weekday until the activity deadline of June 19.

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