Joint Investigation Body Raids 9 Election Commission Offices Over Vote-Count Manipulation Allegations

[Anchor]

In connection with allegations of false voter turnout data entry, the joint police-prosecution investigation team has carried out sweeping raids on nine election commission offices across the country. A full-scale investigation has begun to determine how the National Election Commission's guideline instructing local offices to adjust voter numbers was implemented in the field.

Reporting from Jeon Yeonnam.

[Reporter]

The nine locations raided by the joint investigation team today (August 7) include the National Election Commission, the election commissions of Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and North Chungcheong Province, as well as local offices in Gimpo, Uiwang, Jincheon, Gangnam-gu in Seoul, and Seocho-gu in Seoul.

This marks the second major raid to secure additional physical evidence, coming half a month after the initial raids on the National Election Commission and other offices regarding the turnout manipulation allegations on July 23.

The warrants listed charges including falsification of official electronic records and obstruction of official duties.

The joint investigation team launched the probe after uncovering circumstances in which election commission officials arbitrarily adjusted figures after incorrectly entering the number of voters during the June 3 local elections.

During the process, investigators confirmed that an official at the National Election Commission sent an email on election day to regional election commissions stating, "If it is not a major error, you can add or subtract it in the next hourly report."

With the formal booking of this official—who effectively enabled voter count figures to be arbitrarily altered at polling sites—the number of election commission officials booked as suspects has increased to three.

The joint investigation team also secured records showing that when local offices such as Gimpo inquired about corrections due to incorrect voter entries, the National Election Commission created and sent an Excel file containing specific numerical adjustment methods.

Using the messenger logs and emails seized during today's raids, the investigation team plans to verify whether the email sent by the National Election Commission official was actually used as a working guideline by frontline city, county, and district election commissions.

(Video Editing: Ahn Yeojin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.