Discrepancies between on-site voter counts and final tallies in the June 3 local elections have raised suspicions of statistical manipulation even after the polls closed.
According to analysis data submitted by the National Election Commission to the office of Jeong Chun-seng, a member of the Justice Innovation Party, more than half of the 3,558 administrative districts across the country—1,971 in total—showed significant discrepancies.
Among these, 29 districts reported differences of over 100 voters, with issues arising in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Jeonbuk, Chungnam, Gangwon, Gyeongbuk, and Busan.
In Gyeonggi Province's Anseong City, the voter count at the 4th polling station in Gongdo-eup was recorded at 2,105 at 6 p.m. However, the final count dropped to 1,494, a decrease of 611 voters, or 29%.
Similarly, in Seongnam City's Sujeong-gu, the first polling station in Yangji-dong reported a final count of 1,358, down from an initial 1,042, a reduction of 316. In Goyang City's Deogyang-gu, the second polling station in Haengsin 4-dong saw a drop from 916 to 683.
Conversely, some areas reported increases in final voter counts. In Busan's Suyeong-gu, Gwang-an 1-dong, the count at 6 p.m. was 7,137, but the final tally rose to 7,922, an increase of 785.
At polling stations 2 to 5 in Gwang-an 1-dong, the voter counts at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. were identical, yet the final tally showed an increase of nearly 800 votes.
In Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi Province, discrepancies of about 100 voters were noted at each polling station, leading to a total increase of 348. In Jeonju City, Jeonbuk Province, the 7th polling station in Songcheon 2-dong saw an increase of 164 voters, representing 17% of the 968 counted at 6 p.m.
Notably, polling stations in Gangnam-gu and Songpa-gu in Seoul, which faced a shortage of ballots, reported final counts that increased by 147 and 98, respectively, while the count in Songpa-gu's Geoyeon 2-dong decreased by 102.
On election day, the number of voters is manually verified by election officials at each polling station and reported to the local election commission. The local commission then inputs the data into a system that is verified by the provincial and national election commissions.
After polls close, the remaining ballots are counted to report a provisional voter count, with the final voter turnout determined by the number of ballots counted.
Due to the manual aggregation process, there is a possibility of data entry errors occurring before the final turnout is announced.
The issue lies in the Election Commission's failure to properly correct these errors, instead opting to redistribute data or adjust figures in subsequent reports, indicating potential statistical manipulation.
While errors during the day could be attributed to data redistribution, there are concerns that adjustments may have occurred in different ways as the polls closed or after.
The joint investigation team, led by Kim Tae-hoon, deputy chief prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, is examining whether the Election Commission re-accessed the vote counting system after the election to correct data entry errors and whether any false entries or manipulations occurred during this process.
The Election Commission maintains that the hourly voter counts are provisional figures, and discrepancies with actual counts are inevitable.
However, since the trends in voter turnout on election day are crucial for voters' decisions and last-minute mobilization efforts by campaign teams, the Election Commission may find it difficult to evade responsibility for not correcting these figures in a timely manner.
Even mismanagement of key indicators could pose significant issues, especially given that the Election Commission has been accused of distorting statistics by arbitrarily entering voter counts.
If it is confirmed that the Election Commission manipulated statistics by accessing the vote counting system after the election, it could severely undermine public trust in the electoral system as a whole.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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