A total of 72 instances of altered voter counts were reported by election commissions across the country on the day of the June 3 local elections. The joint investigation team has identified signs of inflated voter counts being redistributed among different polling places and is continuing its investigation into the Central Election Commission (CEC).
According to legal sources on July 27, the joint investigation team, led by Kim Tae-hoon, deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, resumed its search of the CEC. The team is analyzing data obtained from the CEC's servers and internal messaging systems.
On July 23, the team named one staff member each from the CEC and the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission as suspects on charges of forgery of public electronic records and obstruction of public duty.
The investigation team has reportedly confirmed instances of false voter counts in two locations in Gyeonggi Province and one in Chungcheong Province on the day of the local elections. At one polling place in Gyeonggi, the actual number of voters was in the hundreds, but it was recorded as thousands, maintaining this incorrect count for about four hours.
The joint investigation team suspects that staff members from the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission redistributed the inflated voter counts to nearby polling places, and that a CEC staff member may have directed these adjustments. This was allegedly done to conceal abnormally high voter turnout at specific polling places by redistributing the excess counts.
Clues for the investigation emerged during a previous inquiry into a ballot shortage incident. The team reportedly discovered evidence of voter count adjustments in Gyeonggi and Chungcheong regions while analyzing computers and internal messages seized from election commission employees.
According to a report submitted by the People Power Party's Kim Eun-hye to the CEC, 72 modification reports were filed by 56 local election commissions nationwide on the day of the elections.
To change the data entered into the election management system, specific reasons for the modifications must be documented and verified by the provincial election commission. However, many of the reports cited vague reasons such as 'input error,' 'omission,' and 'change in voter count' without clear explanations.
In Incheon’s Geomdan District, the reported voter count was initially 54,665 at 4 p.m. but was later revised to 61,276, an increase of 6,611. The reason given was that the total voter count did not match the aggregated reports from each polling place.
In Cheongju’s Sangdang District, the voter count was changed from 51,833 to 56,081 at 5 p.m., with the explanation that the earlier figure had been incorrectly entered. Similarly, Hongseong County in Chungcheong Province adjusted its count from 28,092 to 29,863 for the same reason.
There were also instances of late corrections. Gunpo City in Gyeonggi corrected an input error that occurred in the morning at 7 p.m., after voting had concluded. Jincheon County in Chungcheong Province also changed its reported figure from the 6 p.m. report to a new count at 9 p.m.
The joint investigation team is currently working to distinguish between simple input errors and intentional false adjustments among the 72 reported cases. They plan to expand the investigation to determine if similar adjustments occurred in other regions or past elections.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.