Special Prosecutor Searches 7 Locations, Including National Election Commission, Over "False Entry of Voter Numbers"

Locations with confirmed false entries at election commissions rise from 5 to 30
Figures manipulated after incorrect entries; probe into possible organized involvement

On Oct. 15, the special counsel team investigating the National Election Commission (NEC) began search-and-seizure operations at seven locations, including the NEC, over suspicions that voter numbers by time slot were falsely entered during the Ninth Nationwide Simultaneous Local Elections.

Starting at 9:10 a.m. that day, the team was executing search warrants at the NEC; four provincial and metropolitan election commissions in Chungnam, Gwangju-Jeonnam, Gyeongnam and Gangwon; and the election commissions in Nam-gu, Busan, and Seogwipo, Jeju. A total of 31 people were deployed for the searches, including three prosecutors, 20 investigators and eight digital forensics investigators.

A signboard for the special counsel team led by Lee Taehan, which is investigating the shortage of ballots and other issues in the June 3 local elections, hangs outside its office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News Agency

The special counsel team said it had confirmed that voter numbers by time slot were falsely entered at 30 city, county and district election commissions nationwide. In addition to the five locations identified by the previous joint investigation headquarters—Seocho-gu and Gangnam-gu in Seoul, Gimpo and Uiwang in Gyeonggi Province, and Jincheon County in North Chungcheong Province—the team found 25 more locations: Guro-gu, Mapo-gu and Seongbuk-gu in Seoul; Suwon and Seongnam in Gyeonggi Province; and Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province, among others.

According to the special counsel team, when the number of voters incorrectly entered for a particular time slot exceeded the final actual voter count, the figures were later falsified across the board to make them appear normal. The team also found cases in which officials left the incorrectly entered figure unchanged and entered the same number for subsequent time slots, or increased the number by a fixed amount. The team believes these figures were released to the public as real-time voter turnout information.

Over the past several weeks, the special counsel team stationed digital forensics investigators at the NEC and analyzed log data on voter numbers by time slot from polling stations nationwide. It also questioned around 70 election commission officials at the eup, myeon and dong, and city, county and district levels who were responsible for reporting real-time turnout. Through the searches, the team plans to determine the scale of the false entries and whether there was organized involvement.

The special counsel team said, "Such false entries undermine public confidence in the fairness and transparency of elections and lead to distrust in the electoral system itself." It added, "We will focus our investigative efforts on identifying the causes and clearly establishing where responsibility lies."

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