Ballots Removed 148 Days After Public Verification; Questioned Ballots to Undergo NFS Analysis

Special Prosecutor Team Wraps Up Public Verification After 12 Hours
Ballots Cleared of Irregularities Moved to Election Commission’s Secure Warehouse
Special Prosecutor Team Separately Secures 13 Boxes of Challenged Ballots

About 2.47 million ballots from the Songpa district in the June 3 local elections, which had undergone public verification by Lee Taehan’s Special Prosecutor Team for the National Election Commission, were all removed from the Handball Gymnasium in Seoul’s Olympic Park on October 29. The team said it would carry out procedures, including a detailed examination, for ballots that had been challenged.

Ballot inspection counters are installed at the Handball Gymnasium in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul, where the National Election Commission's special inspection of ballots from the June 3 local elections is being publicly conducted on the 28th. (Oct. 28, 2026. Photo by Joint Press Corps)

Starting at around 6:15 a.m. on October 29, the National Election Commission moved the ballots that had completed public verification out of the gymnasium. The commission transported 420 boxes containing ballots confirmed to have no irregularities to a separate secure warehouse in the Seoul metropolitan area.

The Special Prosecutor Team separately secured 13 boxes containing ballots that it determined required further examination, including those challenged by observers. It plans to send some of them to the National Forensic Service for detailed analysis, and to conduct further analysis of the rest before deciding whether to make them the subject of an investigation.

After checking the number of ballots and the condition of the markings and printing for about 12 hours starting the previous morning, the Special Prosecutor Team completed the verification process at around 12:38 a.m. on October 29. Some observers from the People Power Party demanded additional verification and staged an overnight sit-in to block the transfer, but all the ballots were removed that morning.

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