Exclusive: Voting Extension Chaos in Local Elections; Some Deadlines Set as Late as 8:50 PM

[Anchor]

On the day of the June 3 local elections, 26 polling stations across the country experienced voting suspensions due to a shortage of ballots. Some of these locations extended their voting hours beyond the standard 6:00 PM deadline. The extensions varied significantly, ranging from as little as 18 minutes to as long as 4 hours. In one instance, the decision to extend the deadline was not even made until 8:50 PM.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the story.

[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 voting suspension crisis was most severe.

The closing times varied widely, ranging from 6:18 PM to 10:00 PM.

We examined the situation at the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station, which was the last to conclude voting.

Voting at this location was suspended from 4:46 PM to 5:39 PM before resuming.

Although the station issued waiting tickets to manage the process, they ultimately had to extend the closing time.

When was that closing time decided?

After discussions among Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission officials, the proposal was reported to the Seoul Election Commission Chairperson at 8:30 PM, and the decision to extend voting until 10:00 PM was not finalized until 8:50 PM.

This decision came 2 hours and 50 minutes after the official 6:00 PM voting deadline.

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

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

[Cho Hyun-wook / Chairperson of the NEC Fact-Finding Committee (June 17, KBS1 Radio 'Jeongyeok Sisa'): There are 12 people who came to vote, found no ballots, waited, and eventually had to leave without casting their votes.]

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

However, the report includes a section stating that they would 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 already reported various issues to the upper-level election commissions.

[Lee Jae-mook / Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies: The staff in Songpa actually did report the issues. Isn't the fundamental problem about determining at what level to quickly respond to specific issues when an emergency arises?]

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