Representative Jeon Han-gil announcing the recovery of one of the ballot boxes that had gone missing after being stored at the Jamsil 7-dong 2nd polling station, following a tip-off.

Following the confirmation of additional nationwide ballot counting input errors by the National Election Commission (NEC) in relation to the "ballot paper shortage" during the June 3 local elections, circumstances indicating that ballot boxes—which were subject to court-ordered evidence preservation—had been illicitly destroyed have come to light, prompting a comprehensive investigation by a joint prosecution-police task force.

Valid and invalid votes swapped, party vote counts "shifted": More errors emerge

Representative Choi Bo-yun of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Special Committee on Investigation, conducted a full audit of the NEC’s local election ballot counting system, revealing additional cases of incorrect data entry in three regions.

Beyond the previously identified errors in the Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education election, two valid votes in the Siheung City Council election (Da-constituency, Sinhyon-dong 3rd and Yeonseong-dong 2nd) were incorrectly processed as invalid. This resulted in a loss of one vote each for People Power Party candidate Ahn Don-eui and Democratic Party of Korea candidate Kim Jin-young.

Conversely, in the Gimcheon City Council election in North Gyeongsang Province (Ga-constituency, Daegok-dong), two invalid votes were erroneously processed as valid. This resulted in an additional vote each for independent candidates Lee Bok-sang and Park Geon-woo.

In the Gyeonggi Provincial Council proportional representation election (including Suwon Paldal-gu and Ansan Danwon-gu), dozens of mass errors occurred as the number of votes for each party was entered incorrectly in a shifted sequence.

A review of the final vote counts after corrections shows increases for the Justice Party (+13), Freedom and Innovation (+8), Christian Party (+3), Hannara Party (+2), Basic Income Party (+1), and National Party (+1), while decreases were noted for the New Future Democratic Party (-19), Great Korea Party (-4), National Alliance (-3), and Pro-American Alliance (-2).

Representative Choi Bo-yun warned of the possibility of further errors, stating, "The NEC's internal verification system has completely collapsed." The NEC offered an apology, stating, "We deeply reflect on this and will ensure thorough cross-checking and verification moving forward."

Ballot shortages and suspected box concealment: Task force begins summoning NEC officials

The joint investigation task force is also accelerating its efforts to clarify the "ballot paper shortage" and "alleged destruction of ballot boxes" that occurred on election day.

According to legal sources, the task force plans to summon election officials from the Songpa-gu NEC, two election committee members, and an official from the Songpa-gu Office’s Autonomous Administration Division as witnesses on the 3rd. They intend to conduct an intensive investigation into how the NEC officials who received reports of the ballot shortage communicated internally and what directives were issued.

On the 10th of last month, the Seoul Eastern District Court attempted an on-site verification of the Jamsil 7-dong 2nd polling station, but the ballot boxes meant to be secured had already been destroyed by the NEC.

While the NEC claimed that the items were "destroyed before the court's evidence preservation order was received," the controversy intensified after former history instructor Jeon Han-gil publicly revealed that he had recovered one of the destroyed ballot boxes. The task force plans to conduct an intensive investigation into the timing and specific circumstances behind the decision to destroy the ballot boxes.