※ This article is based on a video released on June 30, 2026.

We speak with Kim Jung-chul, Supreme Council Member of the Reform Party, about the ongoing fallout from the National Election Commission's ballot paper shortage incident.


Ballots Delivered in 'Shopping Bags'—How Did This Absurdity Happen?
Q. Looking at the CCTV footage released through SBS's exclusive report, on the June 3 voting day, voters were lining up to vote, but the process stalled, and people eventually left after waiting. Then, a man walks in carrying a shopping bag. Was this shopping bag filled with ballots?

▶ Related Report: [Exclusive] Hurriedly in a Shopping Bag... The Day Voting Was Suspended

A. It is absurd. Ballots are extremely important. Under the Public Official Election Act, the continuity and integrity of ballots are so critical to ensuring the fairness of an election that they must be sealed the day before. Carrying them in a shopping bag makes no sense. Even school exam papers go through a strict procedure where police seal and transport them. Not only did this chaos occur, but it shows there was simply no system in place.


500 Ballots Delivered in Five Batches of 100—What Is the Problem?
Q. So there were 500 ballots in total, brought in five times with 100 sheets each in a shopping bag. Is there footage on the CCTV showing them continuously carrying them in like that?

A. Under the Public Official Election Act, ballots must be sealed the day before, and 50% was an internally set lower limit. However, they rounded down to the nearest 100, making it less than 50%. For example, if there are 3,900 voters, half should be 1,950, but they cut off the 50 and printed only 1,900. Since there are many instances where they printed fewer ballots, this is extremely serious.

In such situations, the available options are either using unnumbered ballots or bringing in ballots from another neighborhood (dong). Unnumbered ballots are meant to replace a single ballot if it gets damaged or soiled during voting. We are raising this issue because we believe using them in bulk and manually numbering them is illegal.

Borrowing ballots from another neighborhood is also problematic. Local council districts differ by neighborhood. Even within Songpa District, they vary by neighborhood. Therefore, they must borrow from a place that uses the exact same ballots, and even then, serial numbers must be recorded. Because of this sloppy management, the voting logs were not properly filled out either. They do not even know exactly how many ballots were sent or how many were used.


Handwritten Serial Numbers on Ballots—Is It Illegal?
Q. I understand that ballot serial numbers are supposed to be printed by the day before the election. If they brought in ballots with handwritten numbers, isn't that a violation of the law?

A. I believe that is also a violation of the law. The NEC excuses it by saying, "It is recorded in the voting log or elsewhere, so there is no problem." In fact, they did not even write serial numbers on the unnumbered ballots. There were many votes cast on ballots without any numbers. While they should look at this situation with gravity, they say, "Even without them, the validity of the vote is unaffected. Those are also real ballots." This kind of response is what makes people angry.

What is the reason for having serial numbers in the first place? The serial number is what proves a ballot is genuine. The reason I filed for the preservation of those boxes as evidence is that the serial numbers and the quantity of ballots are written on the outside of the box, and the box itself is sealed. The NEC claims they are just waste, but that is nonsense. Those boxes are used to comply with obligations under the Public Official Election Act. They are supposed to be sealed, stored the day before, and opened on election day. They are crucial pieces of evidence.

Q. So you filed an evidence preservation request for those boxes as well?

A. Yes, I did. But that is also in chaos right now. They do not even know where they went. The NEC's response was, "Those are waste". So I requested a formal inquiry into how the waste was disposed of, and the court accepted it. The response we received was, "They were handed over to a waste disposal company and melted down (dissolved into liquid) and are gone".

What is more serious is that those boxes might not have been melted down at all. When a reporter contacted the disposal company, they said, "We never received such boxes. We melted down election promotional materials, but we never received boxes." It seems clear under the current circumstances that they do not know where the boxes are, even though they told the court they discarded them. If there is a possibility that they were not actually discarded, it is a grave issue. The management was so non-existent that they cannot even provide a proper answer.

The core reason I started this was because I thought, "This will be exploited by election deniers and conspiracy theorists. I need to correct this. I want to objectively show that this is a case of sloppy election management, not a rigged election." But the negligence is so severe that it is hard to definitively say it was not rigged. It is "rigged" in a broader sense. While it may not be a deliberate attempt to manipulate the election results, this level of negligence is a systemic failure. This is not the South Korean system we believed in. We thought South Korea was an advanced country, but this is how our elections are managed? The responses from the NEC officials are also incredibly absurd.
Q. They claim that "printing fewer ballots in the first place was to prevent election fraud conspiracy theories."

A. Making such nonsensical claims only angers the public further. Instead of thinking about building a more rigorous system, they decided to reduce the number of ballots? It is a cowardly excuse.


How Did You Come to File the Evidence Preservation Request?
Q. What made you think of filing an evidence preservation request with the court?

A. Since conspiracy theorists claiming election fraud could exploit this situation, I thought it was important to show objective evidence and processes, which is why I filed the evidence preservation request. If you just ask for CCTV footage, they will never give it to you. They only provide it with a court decision or a search warrant. That is why I quickly filed the request to secure even the surrounding CCTV footage.


Why Did the Court Accept the Request?
Q. On what grounds did the court accept the request?

A. The court has a lot of discretion. If they think, "The NEC must be keeping it anyway, so it won't be damaged," they might reject it, finding no necessity for preservation. That is why I focused on the boxes. I argued, "These boxes are at risk of being damaged and could be moved anywhere at any time". Also, since CCTV footage is usually deleted after 30 days, the court accepted that part.


Evidence Preservation Filed for CCTV at 10 Polling Stations in Songpa—What About the Rest?
Q. The evidence preservation requests for CCTV at all 10 polling stations in Songpa District were accepted. You haven't seen the rest of the footage yet, right?

A. We received replies stating that there are no CCTV cameras at the 3rd polling station in Garak 2-dong and the 1st polling station in Munjeong 2-dong. We still need to obtain footage from the remaining seven or eight locations. The NEC should have naturally installed CCTV cameras at every polling station, but they are not properly in place. Some places have them, some do not, and even where they exist, they were already there originally, not installed by the NEC. That is why I plan to secure even the surrounding CCTV footage. It shows how complacently the NEC has responded. Is this really South Korea? It was shocking.


Could the 500 Additional Votes Be Invalidated?
Q. Under the election law, when ballots are transported, party-recommended observers must be present. If that was not properly done, couldn't the 500 additional votes actually be invalidated in a lawsuit?

A. Election observers must verify and go through a validation process both when ballots are cast and when they are counted. Since a serious flaw occurred in this regard, I think there is a high possibility they could be invalidated. There is the validity of the election and the validity of the votes, and the validity of the votes can indeed be invalidated.

For example, in the Seoul mayoral election, even if 500 votes are invalidated, it would not change the outcome, so the election itself would not be declared void. However, in local council elections, 500 votes can make a difference. Some races are decided by a single vote, and there are places where this could actually affect who wins or loses. In those cases, the invalidation of votes could affect the validity of the election. This could easily lead to litigation, and I believe declaring the election void is entirely possible.

Q. If an election is declared void, what happens next?

A. A re-election must be held for that local council seat. Although the election could be declared void, the National Election Commission has no intention of invalidating it. There is a system called an election appeal, but they do not accept them anyway, so it is just a system to buy time. However, since we must go through the election appeal process before we can file a lawsuit in court, we have no choice but to go through it now.

Q. The number of people who could not vote is 39 according to the NEC, but it seems likely there were more. Is there no way to remedy the situation for those who had to turn back without voting?

A. There is no way to remedy it. One would have to address the violation of fundamental rights to file a state compensation lawsuit, but under the current circumstances, it is not easy for individuals to step forward. This issue must be resolved by the state. It is crucial for the state to show efforts on how to restore the violated right to vote. While dismantling the NEC and improving the system are important, we must also think about what measures to take for those whose voting rights have already been violated. Because such measures are lacking, I believe a sincere apology and compensation or reparation from the state are necessary for the violation of suffrage.


How Far Up Should the NEC Be Held Accountable?
Q. Former NEC Chairperson Noh Tae-ak has already been accused, but how far up can we hold people accountable?

A. I believe everyone, starting from the NEC chairperson, must take responsibility. To strengthen the independence of the NEC, court judges are symbolically placed in the commission. This was designed to give a sense of independence, neutrality, and fairness. That is why the public trusted them. If they made people trust them, they should have done a good job. But looking at their behavior now, they simply neglected their duties. Everyone knows that neglecting duties like this, thinking "I'm just doing this formally," constitutes a crime. Since they are judges themselves, they should be held to a very strict standard this time. I believe those former judges and former Chairperson Noh Tae-ak must be punished.