Seoul Eastern District Court, On-site inspection of Jamsil 7-dong polling station due to 'ballot shortage' [Yonhap News]

The court conducted an on-site inspection of a polling station where a ballot shortage occurred during the June 3 local elections on the 10th, but preservation of evidence failed as the ballot boxes had already disappeared.

With the National Election Commission also stating that they do not possess the ballot boxes, the whereabouts of the key physical evidence in this incident are emerging as a new issue.

Judge Kim Ji-yeon, head of the Civil Division 51 at the Seoul Eastern District Court, visited the Seongpa-gu Useong Apartment Senior Citizens' Hall, which served as Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 2, at 3 p.m. on the same day to secure evidence for 27 minutes.

The box carried by court officials had "Preservation of Evidence" written on it. Amidst the gathering of reporters, the windows of the senior citizens' hall were covered with umbrellas for security reasons.

Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 2 returned to its original state as a senior citizens' hall [Yonhap News]

However, the polling station had already been restored to its original state as a senior citizens' hall, and the ballot box containing "1,900 printed ballots," for which the court had ordered preservation of evidence the previous day, had also disappeared.

A National Election Commission official said in a phone call with Yonhap News, "We do not have the ballot boxes," adding, "We need to check the detailed location."

Kim Cheol-cheol, the supreme council member of the New Reform Party, stated that an official from the election commission at the scene also claimed not to know the whereabouts of the box. Supreme Council Member Kim, who ran as a candidate for Seoul mayor, accompanied the site visit in his capacity as the applicant for the preservation of evidence to the court.

It is understood that the National Election Commission's stance is that there is no legal obligation to store the boxes that held ballots, as they were not the ballot boxes themselves.

Given the chaos that ensued on June 5 when police removed ballot boxes from the location and protesters stormed in, there is a possibility that a third party took the boxes.

According to the plan, Judge Kim was supposed to seal the ballot box on-site and then transport it to a separate location within the court for storage and preservation of evidence.

However, since the box was not found during the on-site inspection, it is expected that the court will proceed with a request for information regarding its storage location from the National Election Commission and other relevant parties.

A ballot box, presumed to have been sent by the old election commission to this polling station, found inside Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 2 in Songpa-gu, Seoul, from which ballot boxes were transported on the 5th. The 'Number of Ballots Printed' written on the outside of this box was a total of 1,900. It was marked as 'Box 1 of 1', indicating that there were no other ballot boxes. The number of registered voters at this polling station was identified as 3,856. [Yonhap News] 

The ballot box that the court sought to secure through the preservation of evidence is considered one of the items that illustrates the National Election Commission's mismanagement.

On June 5, after police deployed about 1,000 officers to remove two ballot boxes from Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 2, 35 hours after voting concluded, protesters entered the polling station and searched the items left behind by the election commission.

On the outside of the ballot box found at the scene, it was written, "Number of ballots printed: 1,900, Box 1 of 1."

The number of registered voters at this polling station was identified as 3,856. The number of ballots prepared was only 49.3% of the registered voters, falling short of the "minimum 50% printing of ballots" guideline.

Yonhap News had taken photos of the ballot box at the scene at the time and highlighted that the proportion of ballots distributed compared to the number of registered voters was less than 50%.

In addition to this box, the court's preservation of evidence order also included closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the polling station and ballot box storage from 8 a.m. on June 3 to 9 p.m. on June 5, taken at 10 polling stations in Songpa-gu where the ballot shortage occurred, including the location in question.

The court also ordered the preservation of records from group chats, messengers, and text messages among National Election Commission staff during the ballot shortage incident.

It is known that the court has requested the submission of CCTV footage and group chat records.

This preservation of evidence was made based on the court's decision regarding the application filed on the 8th by Kim Cheol-cheol, who ran as a candidate for Seoul mayor, requesting the prior securing of evidence before filing an election invalidation lawsuit.

Speaking to reporters at the scene on the same day, Supreme Council Member Kim stated, "The ballot box is evidence that the National Election Commission failed to meet even its own internal '50%' standard," and announced that he would file an election appeal as early as the 15th.

He added, "Since the evidence we intend to secure is not here, we may consider filing an additional request for preservation of evidence regarding the ballot boxes at the vote counting station after receiving the response to the factual inquiry."