Evidence Found That Ballot Shortage Warning Was Ignored... JIT Expands Investigation Network

Despite Official Notice to "Prepare for Shortages in Low Early Voting Areas,"

Local Election Commissions Suspected of Negligence

The joint investigative team of the prosecution and police (JIT), which is investigating the ballot paper shortage incident that occurred during the June 3 local elections, has found evidence that local election commissions were aware in advance of the possibility of such a crisis but failed to follow the Central Election Commission's response guidelines.

According to the legal community on July 5, the JIT conducted a search and seizure of the Central Election Commission's server and secured an internal email titled "Guidelines on Precautions for Ballot Management Work." The team is now meticulously reviewing how local election commissions actually responded.

Yonhap News

Upon confirmation, it was revealed that immediately after early voting ended on May 31, the Central Election Commission sent a work communication to district, city, and county election commissions nationwide, instructing them to take proactive measures in polling stations where early voter turnout was low. The communication warned that if voters concentrated on election day, there could be a shortage of ballot papers, and advised distributing additional unnumbered ballot papers in advance.

The JIT suspects that, although local election commissions were already aware of early voting turnout data and had received this warning email, they failed to establish countermeasures. The JIT believes that, if the existing guidelines and regulations had been properly followed, the confusion caused by running out of ballot papers on election day could have been prevented.

In addition, the JIT is continuing its investigation into why the number of printed ballot papers was reduced to about 50% of the total number of eligible voters during the election. The investigation team called in a member of the Songpa District Election Commission as a reference to confirm whether there were any internal concerns or objections raised during the decision-making process to reduce the number of ballot papers.

Since the launch of the organization last month, the JIT has summoned and questioned more than 70 individuals, including polling station managers where shortages occurred and local election commission staff. Once testimonies from field staff and officials from the Seoul Election Commission are secured, the investigation will expand to higher-level decision-makers. Additionally, the JIT is expected to soon begin summoning those accused in relation to suspicions of overseas business trips taken by former Central Election Commission Chairman Noh Tae-ak and others, following the completion of investigations into the complainants.

Meanwhile, the JIT has also taken over cases from the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office regarding allegations of personnel recruitment corruption and the fabrication of false budget requests within the election commission, launching a comprehensive investigation. Previously, the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency referred the general affairs manager and personnel manager of the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission to the prosecution on charges of arbitrarily adjusting and reflecting the interview scores of certain applicants during the 2021 experienced staff recruitment process.

The JIT's investigation also includes allegations that Central Election Commission staff intentionally omitted audit findings from the Board of Audit and Inspection when preparing budget requests, thereby securing funds from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

To examine irregularities in overall organizational operations, the JIT has formed a dedicated personnel and budget team and is accelerating the reinforcement of its workforce. On July 1, a deputy chief prosecutor from the Tongyeong branch of the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office joined the team, and on July 6, two additional prosecutors are scheduled to be dispatched. The JIT is also in the process of securing additional police investigators.

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