Vote tally mistake prompts cover-up allegations

The North Jeolla Provincial Election Commission did not report a vote-counting error in the June 3 election for provincial superintendent of education until five days after the vote, prompting criticism that officials may have sought to downplay or conceal the mistake. The error left 1,104 ballots uncounted in the official tally.

The provincial election commission said Thursday that it is taking steps to correct a data-entry error involving the North Jeolla superintendent of education election at Polling Station No. 1 in Jungwhasan 1-dong, Jeonju. According to the commission, officials at Polling Station No. 3 mistakenly identified their voting record sheet as belonging to Polling Station No. 1 before sending it to the counting center. The discrepancy went unnoticed during the counting process, and the results from Polling Station No. 3 were entered under Polling Station No. 1. Consequently, votes cast by 1,104 voters at the actual Polling Station No. 1 were excluded from the final count.

Election workers discovered the problem shortly before vote counting concluded in the early hours of June 4. Vote totals for the North Jeolla governor's race, the Jeonju mayoral contest and local council elections were corrected, but the superintendent of education results were not. The commission said it confirmed the error while reviewing the tally on June 5, yet did not notify the National Election Commission until June 8. Kim Sang-gon, chairman of the North Jeolla Provincial Election Commission and chief judge of the Jeonju District Court, was informed a day later on June 9.

The provincial election commission said the Public Official Election Act does not clearly spell out how counting errors that do not affect election outcomes should be corrected. “We believed any revision to the vote count required careful consideration,” the commission said.

Separately, acting National Election Commission Chairman Wi Cheol-hwan addressed the ballot shortage that disrupted voting, saying more than 42,000 ballots remained unused across Seoul's Songpa District. “Looking at Songpa District as a whole, there were more than 42,000 ballots left over,” Wi said. “Our painful mistake was failing to distribute them appropriately among the district's 146 polling stations.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Major Crimes Investigation Division, which is probing the ballot shortage, carried out search-and-seizure operations Thursday at seven locations, including the National Election Commission headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

The warrant reportedly identified more than 10 people as suspects, including former National Election Commission Chairman Roh Tae-ak and former Secretary-General Heo Cheol-hoon.


이승우 suwoong2@donga.com