The election commission, which plunged the nation into chaos due to a shortage of ballots, has now been found to have erroneously entered the vote counting results for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education election into the computer system. [Photo=Yonhap News]

The election commission, which plunged the nation into chaos due to a shortage of ballots, has now been found to have erroneously entered the vote counting results for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education election into the computer system.

The Election Commission of Wansan-gu, Jeonju City, made an error by duplicating the results from polling station 3 in Hwasan 1-dong into polling station 1 during the vote counting for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education election.

As the vote counting results from one polling station were duplicated and entered into another, the election concluded without reflecting the choices of approximately 1,100 voters.

The Election Commission explained, "The tally sheet indicated polling district 1 instead of polling district 3, so the vote counting content for polling district 3 was entered into polling district 1."

The Election Commission discovered the error late on the 4th, the day after the election, while finishing the vote counting process. However, the computer system was shut down after the counting was completed, preventing on-site correction. Furthermore, it was revealed that notification to the candidates was omitted.

Ultimately, the election concluded with the votes of 1,104 voters from polling station 1 being omitted, while the vote counting results from polling station 3 were reflected twice.

The Election Commission stated that while the difference in votes between the candidates may have narrowed, the duplicated entry did not affect the election outcome.

Netizens criticized the Election Commission, saying, "Isn't this saying that the election outcome depends on the Election Commission's fingers?" and "This is an admission of election fraud."

By Reporter Im Yo-hee