A "Rising Sun" ballot (left) and a normal ballot.

There is a saying that when coincidences pile up, they become inevitable. In the investigation of election fraud, this saying can be varied to "When coincidences pile up, it is manipulation."

In May 2022, a monumental lawsuit that will be recorded in Korean history took place. It was a lawsuit to invalidate the election related to suspicions of election fraud in the 21st general election in 2020. On this day, lawyer Do Tae-woo, legal representative for former lawmaker Min Kyung-wook, presented "Rising Sun ballots" as evidence of election fraud and urged the court to make a fair judgment.

Election Manager Testified at the Supreme Court: "I Have Never Seen a Stamp Impression Smudged Like a Rising Sun."

"Rising Sun ballots" refer to ballots where the election official's permanent stamp is smudged, making it look like a rising sun. What was most striking in the trial that day was the fact that "all the Rising Sun ballots were in bundles of crisp, new banknotes."

Rising Sun ballots found at the recount site for same-day voting at the 6th polling station in Songdo 2-dong, Incheon.

Lawyer Do testified, "Most same-day ballots are folded before being inserted, but the bundles of Rising Sun ballots with smudged stamp impressions were stiff like new banknotes."

Bundles of ballots that looked like new banknotes alone are considered strong evidence of election fraud. The fact that they also had smudged stamps made the situation appear "undeniable" to anyone.

What was even more astonishing was that not just 100, but over 1,000 ballots appeared at the recount site with such smudged impressions. Out of a total of 1,974 votes cast for same-day voting at the 6th polling station in Songdo 2-dong, it meant that half of the ballots from one polling station had these abnormal impressions.

The election manager of the 6th polling station in Songdo 2-dong at the time appeared as a witness at the Supreme Court. After taking an oath that they would be punished for perjury if they lied, they testified, "I have never seen, heard of, or been informed of any Rising Sun ballots with smudged stamp impressions on the day of the April 15 general election."

The witness stated that they guarded the polling station all day on the day of the election. On that day, only the witness and two other election officials were responsible for stamping the ballots with the election manager's seal and issuing ballot numbers.

The election manager testified that "other election officials also said they had never seen any Rising Sun ballots with smudged stamp impressions."

However, the National Election Commission argued, "The election managers did not examine every single ballot, did they? Even if that were the case, it is claimed that while stamping with the permanent stamp all day, half of the time the stamp was not pressed properly to show the characters clearly, and the other half of the time it was pressed so hard that the stamp impression became smudged."

No Irregularities Recorded in Voting Records or Vote Counting Records

Former lawmaker Min's legal team stated, "Surely, the election officials would not do such a thing in a strictly managed polling station? Even if they did, it is incomprehensible that not a single voter out of approximately 1,000 voters who received a Rising Sun ballot among the 1,974 voters raised any objection."

A screenshot from the National Election Commission's demonstration video of Rising Sun ballots. The stamp shown is of a different type than the Rising Sun ballots found at the scene.

Furthermore, former lawmaker Min strongly protested to the National Election Commission, saying, "If you people have any sense, would you sit there stamping such a stamp 1,000 times for six hours?" Moreover, there were no special notes recorded in the voting records or vote counting records.

The existence of "cabbage leaf" ballots and "Rising Sun" ballots, along with the testimony of the election manager, allows for the inference that organized election fraud crimes were committed.

Former lawmaker Min's legal team lamented, "If the plaintiff has proven the likelihood of an incident occurring that could change the election outcome to this extent, yet is still required to prove the entire scope of the criminal act—'who, when, where, why, and how' these abnormal ballots were created and inserted—and is ruled against due to insufficient proof, then there will be no way to win election lawsuits against power-based election fraud crimes in the future." They added, "Ultimately, the free constitutional order of the Republic of Korea will perish amidst the flood of election fraud."

By Reporter Lim Yo-hee