The Election Commission has responded to the controversy surrounding identical vote counts for major candidates in some regions during the June 3 local elections, stating that these occurrences were merely coincidental.
On June 9, the Jeonnam Election Commission released a statement addressing the identical vote counts for Min Hyung-bae of the Democratic Party and Lee Jeong-hyeon of the People Power Party in certain areas of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Integrated Special Mayor election. The commission stated, "Analysis of the counting data shows that the overall voting data differed, and the identical vote counts were purely coincidental."
According to the Jeonnam Election Commission, in Goheung County's Geumsan-myeon and Gwangju's Songjeong 1-dong, Min received 1,401 votes while Lee received 120 votes, resulting in the same outcome. In Yeosu's Samil-dong and Sinan County's Ha-ui-myeon, Min received 506 votes and Lee 42 votes, which were also identical. Similar results were recorded in Boseong County's Nodong-myeon and Sinan County's Palgeum-myeon, where both candidates received 356 votes and 42 votes, respectively. In Hwasun County's Iyang-myeon and Gangjin County's Byeongyeong-myeon, both candidates received 444 votes and 46 votes, respectively.
The Jeonnam Election Commission explained that the identical figures resulted from a manual review and aggregation of ballots that had been flagged for re-examination after the initial sorting by ballot sorting machines. They dismissed any possibility of manipulation, stating, "The results coincidentally matched despite being counted by different people in different locations."
Similar instances were noted in the Incheon mayoral election. In the early voting in Incheon's Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong, Democratic Party candidate Park Chan-dae received 3,030 votes, while People Power Party candidate Yoo Jeong-bok received 1,440 votes in both areas.
The Incheon Election Commission also issued a statement, asserting that the total number of voters and the vote counts for other candidates in these two regions were different, thereby refuting any allegations of vote manipulation.
The Election Commission emphasized that representatives from each party and candidate were present throughout the entire counting process, ensuring that fraudulent counting could not occur. They urged the public to refrain from spreading baseless allegations simply because of the rare occurrence of identical results.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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