NEC Special Prosecution Team to Inspect 2.47 Million Songpa-gu Ballots; Over 600 Personnel Involved

Ballot Count and Possible Forgery to Be Checked at Olympic Park on Oct. 28
Check CCTV Footage and Whether Ballot Sorting Machines Were Hacked
Special Prosecutor: "Inspection Is for Investigative Purposes... Will Not Affect Election Results"

The special prosecutor team led by Lee Taehan, which is investigating ballot shortages and other issues in the June 3 local elections, will conduct a large-scale inspection of approximately 2.47 million ballots from Songpa-gu stored at Seoul Olympic Park.

A plaque commemorating the official launch of the special prosecutor team led by Lee Taehan, which will investigate issues including ballot shortages in the June 3 local elections, hangs outside the team’s office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News.

The special prosecutor team investigating the National Election Commission said in a notice to the press on October 26 that it would inspect ballots and related items, including closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, stored at the Handball Gymnasium in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul, starting at 9 a.m. on October 28. The inspection will proceed following resolutions by the plenary committees of the National Election Commission and the Songpa-gu Election Commission. Both institutions agreed to the special prosecutor team's voluntary inspection and to cooperate with the relevant procedures.

The team plans to check for changes in the number of ballots and the possibility of forgery. It will first analyze CCTV footage from the storage site for signs of unauthorized entry, then check the number of ballots and their marking and printing condition. Any ballots found to be irregular during this process will be set aside for detailed examination. The team will also investigate whether voting and ballot-counting equipment, including ballot sorting machines, was hacked or could have malfunctioned.

More than 110 members of the special prosecutor team, including the special prosecutor, five deputy special prosecutors, senior prosecutors and prosecutors, will take part in the inspection. The National Police Agency and the National Forensic Service will also provide personnel and equipment. The National Election Commission will assign approximately 500 people to verify the number of ballots, but they will only assist with the counting. The special prosecutor team will conduct all other inspection procedures independently.

The inspection process will also be open to the public. Approximately 100 observers, including a monitoring group selected by the National Assembly and lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties, are expected to watch the proceedings on site.

The inspection is part of the investigation and is being conducted independently of the election results. The special prosecutor team said, "As this inspection is an investigative procedure, not a recount conducted in connection with an election dispute under the Public Official Election Act, it will, in principle, have no effect on the determination of local election winners or the vote totals."

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