As protests continue at Olympic Park over a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections, both ruling and opposition parties, along with the Election Commission, have expressed support for a public recount.
Ok Mi-sun, head of the Planning and Coordination Office at the Election Commission, stated on July 7 during a meeting of the National Assembly's Special Committee on the National Investigation that "ballot verification could be considered as a precautionary measure for ballot transport."
She explained that the purpose of the verification is to prove the integrity of the ballots stored at Olympic Park, ensuring they are the same as those used on election day.
Ok emphasized that the verification scope includes the condition of election-related documents and materials, such as ballots and voting records, as well as the consistency of the vote counts for each candidate.
She further detailed that the verification process would involve visually rechecking the ballots and counting the votes for each party candidate using a counting machine to create a verification report. Members of the special committee and party-appointed observers will participate in this process, and media coverage will be allowed.
Additionally, Ok noted that verifying all 2.47 million ballots stored at Olympic Park would require approximately 440 personnel and take about nine hours, with an additional four hours needed for verification equipment setup and dismantling.
Meanwhile, Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the National Assembly's Special Committee from the People Power Party, stated on July 5 that while the cost of renting the venue until July 10 is estimated at about 200 million won, mobilizing personnel for the recount would likely cost around 50 million won.
In response, Han Byeong-do, acting leader of the Democratic Party and floor leader, announced during a meeting that the party would actively consider pushing for a recount and verification of the remaining 2.47 million ballots at the Olympic Park handball venue.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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