A ballot paper listing all five Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial candidates. [Photo=Gyeonggi Provincial Election Commission]

Leading up to the June 3rd local elections, an unprecedented number of strange reports flooded in. The claim was that ballot papers were produced and distributed in two different versions. Specifically, some ballots only listed two candidates' names, while others included all of the remaining five to six candidates.

Although the information was initially hard to comprehend, the majority of the informants were high-ranking public officials or individuals with doctoral degrees, lending them significant social credibility. Furthermore, the details they provided were so specific that it was impossible to dismiss them. As soon as the article was published, countless comments appeared stating, "I experienced the same thing," and similar reports began to arrive.

"It was a ballot paper with only Jung Won-o and Oh Se-hoon printed."

First, let's hear from a veteran journalist, who shared his account with on the 6th. The informant testified, "My wife and I received a two-candidate ballot and voted at the polling station in Wonchon Middle School in Banpo 1-dong." He cast his vote around 5:40 PM, just before the polls closed.

On the day of the June 3rd local elections, testimonies began appearing online reporting that voters cast ballots with only two Seoul mayoral candidates printed on them. The image is a reconstruction of the situation at the time, created with AI.  

He stated, "I hadn't researched the candidates beforehand, so I assumed the Seoul mayoral race was like the presidential election, with only the representatives of the two major parties." However, he later received a call from an acquaintance who informed him, "There are ballots with only two Seoul mayoral candidates, and others with six."

Knowing that "under the Public Official Election Act, ballot papers must be uniform and cannot exist in two types," the informant contacted people around him to verify. He discovered that his eldest daughter, son-in-law, and second grandson had all voted using the two-candidate ballots, while his eldest grandson had used a six-candidate ballot.

Additionally, while his second daughter received a six-candidate ballot, two of her friends living in Gaepo-dong and Jamsil also received ballots listing only Jung Won-o and Oh Se-hoon. The more he investigated, the more similar cases came to light.

"It was a ballot paper with only Choo Mi-ae and Yang Hyang-ja."

This time, the case is from Gyeonggi Province. The informant is a retired high-ranking public official residing in Dongtan, Gyeonggi Province. He went to the polling station at 6:10 AM on election day and noticed that while the ballots for Hwaseong Mayor and Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education were long, the green Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial ballot was short. Upon seeing that it only listed candidates Choo Mi-ae and Yang Hyang-ja, he asked the election official, "Are there only two gubernatorial candidates this time?" The official confirmed that this was the case.

He thought, "It will be convenient to vote," marked his ballot, then carefully rolled up the longer ballots to keep them from view. He then folded the gubernatorial ballot from the bottom, attaching it to the top where Choo Mi-ae's name was.

After voting, he returned home and was watching PD Lee Young-don's YouTube channel when he heard reports about many two-candidate ballots appearing in Seoul. At that moment, he was shocked as if struck by lightning and began calling his friends in Gyeonggi Province to investigate.

While most of them couldn't recall clearly, a junior colleague responded, "It was a ballot paper with only Choo Mi-ae and Yang Hyang-ja." He then checked the final vote counts for each candidate on the National Election Commission's website and found that, as listed in the official gazette, there were indeed five gubernatorial candidates.

The informant stated, "If they review the polling station CCTV footage, they should see the scene around 6:30 AM where I am talking to the election official and receiving a short ballot," he said.

However, in the afternoon, he called back with an agitated voice. He reported that after inquiring with the Anti-Corruption Committee for Election Irregularities (Bu bang dae), they had received "quite a few reports from people who voted on these abnormal ballots." Even more concerning was the fact that "the ballots with only two candidates did not appear at the vote counting stations."

"How could this happen if the ballots weren't swapped?" he asked incredulously. He questioned the reporter, "What was the point of my carefully folding that short ballot, which is still a vivid memory, and my conversation with the election official?"

If the ballots with only two candidates were not found at the vote counting stations, then what were all those numerous tip-off calls and emails received by and countless YouTube channels? Shouldn't they be reviewing the polling station CCTV footage from election day?

Reporter Lim Yo-hee