Exclusive: Chaotic Voting Extensions – Some Polling Stations Decided Closing Times as Late as 8:50 PM

[Anchor]

On the day of the June 3 local elections, voting was suspended at 26 polling stations nationwide due to a shortage of ballots, and some were forced to extend their operating hours beyond the 6:00 PM deadline. However, the extensions varied wildly from station to station, ranging from as little as 18 minutes to as long as four hours. In one instance, the closing time was not even decided until 8:50 PM.

Park Jae-yeon has this exclusive report.

[Reporter]

SBS has obtained the "Report on Ballot Shortages and Response Status for the June 3 Local Elections" from the National Election Commission (NEC).

The report includes the closing times for 14 polling stations in Songpa-gu, Seoul, where the suspension of voting was most severe.

Closing times varied significantly, ranging from 6:18 PM to 10:00 PM.

We examined Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 2, which remained open the latest.

At this location, voting was suspended from 4:46 PM to 5:39 PM before resuming.

Although officials issued waiting tickets to manage the crowd, they ultimately had to extend the voting hours.

When was that closing time decided?

It was 8:30 PM when Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission officials discussed the matter and reported it to the commission chair, and it was not until 8:50 PM that the decision to "extend until 10:00 PM" was finalized.

This decision was made two hours and 50 minutes after the official 6:00 PM closing time.

The NEC explained that the delay in decision-making was due to persistent disturbances at the polling station.

Among those who had received waiting tickets but returned home, 12 people were ultimately unable to exercise their right to vote.

[Cho Hyun-wook / Chair of the NEC Fact-Finding Committee (June 17, KBS1 Radio 'Jeongyeok Sisa'): There are currently 12 people who came to vote but found no ballots, waited, and eventually left without being able to cast their votes.]

In the report, the NEC also mentioned measures to prevent a recurrence.

However, one section states that they will consider introducing an "AI-based situation management system" to establish a reporting structure.

Critics point out that it is inappropriate to blame the "reporting structure" when the situation worsened largely due to a lack of a "crisis response system," even though local polling stations had reported various issues to the upper-level election commission.

[Lee Jae-mook / Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies: The staff in Songpa actually did report the issues. The fundamental issue is, when an emergency arises, at what level should a rapid response be triggered for each specific matter? Isn't that the most important thing?]

(Video reporting: Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video editing: Shin Se-eun | Graphics: Kim Han-gil, Seok Jin-sun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.