Election Commission Special Counsel Confirms False Voter Turnout Entries at 30 Local Offices Nationwide

The special counsel team led by Independent Counsel Lee Tae-han has launched a compulsory investigation into seven locations, including the National Election Commission (NEC), after confirming that the NEC falsely entered hourly voter turnout numbers.

The special counsel team announced that starting around 9:10 a.m. today (October 15), it is conducting raids on a total of seven locations: the NEC, four regional election commissions in South Chungcheong, South Jeolla, Gwangju, South Gyeongsang, and Gangwon, and two municipal-level election commissions including Nam-gu in Busan and Seogwipo in Jeju.

A total of 31 personnel have been deployed for the searches, comprising 3 prosecutors, 20 investigators, and 8 digital forensic investigators.

The special counsel team stated that by stationing forensic investigators at the NEC to analyze log data of hourly voter counts across polling stations nationwide and investigating some 70 public officials from township, county, and district election offices, it confirmed that voter turnout numbers were falsely entered at 30 district, county, and municipal election commissions nationwide.

Investigations showed that these 30 local election commissions used methods such as falsely modifying voter numbers or inputting values with predetermined increments.

The special counsel team plans to clarify the accountability of those involved after analyzing the seized materials.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.