Kim Sang-gon, Chairman of the Jeonbuk Election Commission, is seen leaving the commission's meeting room on the 11th. The Jeonbuk Election Commission held a meeting that day to correct the vote count input error that occurred during the vote counting process for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education in the June 3rd local elections. [Yonhap News] 

Kim Sang-gon, Chairman of the Jeonbuk Provincial Election Commission, apologized for the vote count input error that occurred during the vote counting process for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education in the nationwide simultaneous local elections on June 3rd, stating, "I am deeply sorry."

Kim Sang-gon, Chairman of the Jeonbuk Election Commission, announced on the 11th, "Through today's meeting, it was decided to correct the vote counting results that were erroneously recorded in the election records (final record sheets). We plan to submit proposals for improving various work manuals and procedures to the Central Election Commission to prevent recurrence of such incidents."

He added that detailed information on the specific circumstances of the error and the measures taken will be provided to all candidates for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education election.

In this provincial superintendent election, an error occurred where the voting records from polling station number 3 in Junghwasan 1-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju City, were mistakenly recorded as polling station number 1, resulting in the omission of the votes from 1,104 voters at polling station number 1.

The Wansan-gu Election Commission identified this error in the early morning of the 4th, when vote counting was underway, but only reported it to Chairman Kim on the morning of the 9th.

It was understood that the error was reported to Chairman Kim with a delay because the Jeonbuk Election Commission, which received the report from the Wansan-gu Election Commission on the 5th, had to go through inquiries with the Central Election Commission.

The Jeonbuk Election Commission explained that the delay in the final report was due to the weekend overlapping with the election and the intermediate reporting procedures.

Upon receiving the related report, Chairman Kim ordered a meeting to be convened, and accordingly, a meeting was held that day with 7 out of 8 members in attendance.

Chairman Kim stated, "I am aware of the criticism regarding the delay in corrective actions, but the process was delayed because corrections were needed through accurate assessment of the situation and a transparent procedure. If the computer system were to be arbitrarily modified due to some error, it could itself lead to suspicions of election fraud."

Kim Sang-gon, Chairman of the Jeonbuk Election Commission, is seen leaving the commission's meeting room on the 11th. The Jeonbuk Election Commission held a meeting that day to correct the vote count input error that occurred during the vote counting process for the Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education in the June 3rd local elections. [Yonhap News] 

The corrected vote counting results will be processed through the Central Election Commission and will soon be published on the election statistics system.

The Jeonbuk Election Commission also plans to propose to the Central Election Commission methods such as printing and attaching voting records electronically instead of writing them by hand to prevent errors in the recording of voting documents.

This vote count input error originated from a mistake in recording the 'voting record' at polling station number 3 in Junghwasan 1-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju City, on the day of the election.

An election official mistakenly wrote the name of polling station number 1 instead of polling station number 3 on the inner page of the voting record.

Subsequently, the problem escalated as vote counters entered the vote count for polling station number 3 into the record for polling station number 1, based on this erroneous record.

As a result, the vote count for voters at polling station number 1 was omitted from the tally, and the vote counting process was completed with only the results from polling station number 3 being reflected twice.

If the vote counting had proceeded normally, the vote difference between the elected Jeonbuk Superintendent of Education, Chun Ho-seong, and candidate Lee Nam-ho would have decreased by 19 votes, from 118,644 votes to 118,625 votes.

Although this error did not affect the election outcome, the Election Commission faces criticism for causing distrust in the election, following the nationwide shortage of ballot papers that occurred on election day.