Ballots from past elections were discovered to have been mixed in during the vote counting and tabulation process of the 21st presidential election last year. [Photo = Yonhap News]

It has been confirmed that ballots used in past elections were discovered belatedly during the vote counting and tabulation process of the 21st presidential election last year. 

Criticism regarding the infringement of suffrage rights is emerging, along with calls for an overall improvement of the election management system, due to the Election Commission's poor management of ballot boxes, which resulted in voters' precious votes being treated as spoiled votes. 

According to the 'Research Report on the Improvement of Public Election Procedures' submitted by Rep. Kim Min-jeon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Special Committee on Public Administration and Security, to the National Election Commission on the 17th, at least five ballots from past elections were discovered during the vote counting and tabulation of last year's presidential election. 

The discovered ballots were from elections held as recently as two months ago and as far back as three years ago. Specifically, they included: △Ballots from the Seoul Gangseo District Constituency No. 4 City Council election in the 2022 local elections; △Ballots from the Gimpo and Bucheon districts and the proportional representation ballots from the Guro District in Seoul for the 22nd National Assembly election; and △Ballots from the by-election for the Busan Superintendent of Education in April 2025. 

These ballots were discovered only after the election results had been finalized, and therefore, they were not reflected in the vote count at all and were declared invalid. The Election Commission stated, "We determined that these ballots did not affect the election results themselves," and that they are currently being kept at the respective regional election commissions. 

The reason provided by the Election Commission is absurd: "Residual ballots that were stuck in the gaps of the ballot boxes." In other words, past votes were belatedly found because ballot boxes were reused without being properly emptied. The ballots were either tightly adhered to the curved parts inside the large ballot boxes or stuck in the gaps where the cloth and plastic rim were connected at the top of the advance voting ballot boxes for within the jurisdiction, and thus could not be removed during the previous counting. 

Regarding this incident, Rep. Kim Min-jeon emphasized that it is a serious incident where voters' ballots were omitted from the count. She stated, "The related suspicions must be thoroughly investigated through a special prosecution investigation," and added, "Fundamental inspection and institutional improvement of the entire election management system are urgently needed."