The National Election Commission is under search and seizure [Yonhap News]

Circumstances have emerged suggesting that the National Election Commission (NEC) arbitrarily manipulated its election statistics system to resolve discrepancies in voter turnout data on the day of the June 3 local elections.

Allegations have been raised that mid-level staff members "patched up" the figures in a haphazard manner to cover up the errors without reporting to or obtaining approval from their superiors, a critical issue that could impact the election results.

With public trust in the NEC already at an all-time low due to the shortage of ballot papers, the emergence of serious criminal misconduct—beyond mere negligence—has brought the case into a new phase.

According to Yonhap News on the 23rd, the Joint Investigation Headquarters (headed by Kim Tae-hoon, the third deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office) tasked with uncovering the truth behind the infringement of citizens' voting rights included charges of falsifying public electronic records and obstruction of justice by fraudulent means in the search and seizure warrants executed that day against the NEC in Gwacheon and other locations.

It is understood that the Joint Investigation Headquarters applied these charges based on the assessment that when input errors occurred during the voter count, NEC staff—instead of following established procedures—colluded at the working level to manipulate system figures to force them to balance.

This is the first time that circumstances involving the manipulation of the NEC's election statistics system have come to light.

On the 3rd, the day of the June 3 local election, a voter holding a waiting number tag after voting was suspended due to a shortage of ballots at Polling Station No. 6 in Jamsil 2-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap News] 

The Central Election Commission has been reporting turnout data by collecting the number of voters from polling stations nationwide on an hourly basis during early voting and on the day of the main election.

First, polling station managers report the number of voters to the local Eup, Myeon, or Dong election committees via phone or other means, and the local committees then input the cumulative figures into the election management system.

These figures are subsequently reported to the Gu, Si, and Gun committees, with validation steps at the municipal/provincial and central commission levels.

If a voter count is entered incorrectly at a specific polling station, the standard procedure requires a correction request, followed by re-approval to modify the data.

However, investigations revealed that NEC staff bypassed proper reporting and approval procedures, arbitrarily manipulating the system to redistribute voter numbers to other polling stations.

Staff members reportedly adjusted the numbers in an ad-hoc manner, banking on the expectation that the actual number of voters would naturally increase over time, eventually aligning with the manipulated figures.

For instance, if 1,000 voters were incorrectly entered instead of 100 at one polling station, they would spread the excess 900 across nine other stations, narrowing the margin as more voters arrived throughout the day.

It has been discovered that NEC staff members discussed through internal messengers the idea of avoiding formal reports for input errors and instead opting for arbitrary adjustments.

On the 4th, one day after the June 3 local election, a ballot box from Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 1, which had not been opened, sits at the ballot counting center in the Olympic Park Handball Stadium, Seoul. [Yonhap News] 

Until now, the focus of the ballot shortage scandal was on whether it stemmed from poor management or negligence by NEC staff.

Depending on the question of intent, NEC officials could have faced charges such as dereliction of duty, or simply disciplinary action.

However, the confirmation of intentional manipulation of election statistics—an act of criminal wrongdoing far beyond mere error—has fundamentally changed the gravity of the situation.

Given the ease with which staff could access the statistics system, there is significant potential for the scope of the investigation to expand, as the possibility of tampering with other statistical or computational data cannot be ruled out.

It is also possible that the hourly turnout data failed to reflect reality, acting as a contributing factor to the failed demand projections for ballot papers.

Furthermore, since political parties calculate their standing and adjust their mobilization strategies based on real-time turnout, critics argue that this manipulation may have directly influenced the voting process itself.

Ultimately, this is a matter that goes to the heart of public trust in the NEC’s entire election management system.

Based on the data secured during the search and seizure, the Joint Investigation Headquarters plans to investigate the extent of the collusion, including whether such manipulation occurred in past elections.

It is expected that investigators will also look into whether management-level officials at the NEC were aware of these irregularities and whether they fulfilled their supervisory and oversight duties.