[Anchor]

The Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 Polling Station in Seoul has become a symbol of poor election management due to a shortage of ballot papers. Voting was suspended due to a lack of ballots, and a shameful and disastrous situation unfolded as voting hours were extended until 10 p.m. Protests by citizens triggered here also served as a fuse for demonstrations at Olympic Park. We have exclusively obtained 67 hours of CCTV footage from the polling station, which recorded the chaos at the time from June 3 to June 10.

First, an exclusive report by Reporter Son Hyeong-an.

[Reporter Son Hyeong-an]

This is CCTV footage from inside the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 Polling Station in Songpa, Seoul, on the day of the June 3 local elections.

While it appears peaceful on the surface, signs of trouble emerged around 2:33 p.m., the moment a report was made that fewer than 500 ballot papers remained.

However, there was only a request to send additional ballots, and no sense of urgency could be seen among the staff.

Then, past 4:30 p.m., with only an hour and a half left before the end of voting, the staff grew urgent, making phone calls and explaining the situation to voters, before voting was suspended at 4:46 p.m.

Staff members gestured as if manual writing was required and distributed waiting tickets, but as protesting citizens grew in number and chaos escalated, police were dispatched to the scene.

As the waiting line collapsed, staff members rushed out holding crowd control lines, and at 5:38 p.m., a man ran in carrying a paper bag that appeared to contain additional ballots.

The National Election Commission (NEC) initially stated that voting was suspended for 53 minutes and resumed at 5:39 p.m., but the resumption time seen on the CCTV was 5:59 p.m., just one minute before the end of voting—a 20-minute discrepancy.

According to the voting records at the time, the first batch of 50 additional ballots was insufficient, and amid the tangled crowd of citizens, a woman ran in carrying a plastic bag around 6 p.m.

These appear to be the 200 ballots recorded as the second batch of additional papers.

An elderly woman who had visited the polling station earlier around 4:45 p.m. was unable to vote due to the shortage of ballots, but instead of going home, she sat on a chair and waited endlessly.

Although voting eventually resumed, she seemed to give up on waiting in the long queue, but finally managed to exercise her right to vote and left the polling station with difficulty after a whopping 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The threshold of voting, which should be accessible to everyone, essentially became a barrier of hardship.

This CCTV footage was obtained after Kim Jung-chul, a supreme council member of the Reform Party, filed an application for the preservation of evidence with the court. The No. 2 Polling Station had 3,856 confirmed eligible voters, but only 1,900 ballots were initially distributed.

Reported by Ha Ryung | Video by Won Hyeong-hui | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon


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[Anchor]

After the official voting deadline of 6 p.m., the inside of the No. 2 Polling Station became even more chaotic. Although voting was extended until 10 p.m., as protesting citizens gathered, polling station officials locked the entrance doors, forcing some voters to turn back. The situation, which was in absolute chaos, was captured vividly on CCTV.

Next is an exclusive report by Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon.

[Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon]

The chaos at the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 Polling Station worsened after 6 p.m., the closing time of voting under election law.

Reporters and protesting citizens gathered outside the polling station, while inside, voters filling the room could be seen waiting while watching the news on their mobile phones.

As voting continued, including a woman who appeared to be pregnant exercising her right to vote, staff members closed the polling station doors at 7:03 p.m. for the time being.

About 20 minutes later, the ballot counting began following a declaration by the chairperson of the Songpa-gu Election Commission, but voting continued inside.

This is a point that raises questions about legality.

[Cho Hyun-wook / Chairman of the Fact-Finding Committee on the June 3 Local Election Ballot Shortage: "Regarding the impropriety of the decision to extend voting hours... While the ballot counting was initiated and underway following the declaration, voting was still taking place due to the extended voting hours..."]

Around 8:50 p.m., when the Seoul Election Commission announced the extension of voting hours at the No. 2 Polling Station until 10 p.m., staff members stood blocking the doors as protesting citizens grew in number, and then locked the polling station doors at 9:15 p.m.

They selectively let in only those voters who had arrived at the polling station by 6 p.m. and received waiting tickets, filtering them through the gap in the door.

[Citizen: "Do we need a waiting ticket? I came earlier but left. Can't I go back in and vote?"]

There were also voters who, unable to vote at other polling stations, came after hearing news of the extended voting hours.

[Citizen: "We came back to vote because we heard this place is open until 10 p.m. We thought it would be possible since they said voting was allowed."]

Around 9:28 p.m., a voter who entered with their face covered finished voting and tried to leave through the back door, seemingly to avoid the crowd outside, but when that proved difficult, they left through the front door.

According to the CCTV footage, only one citizen voted after the polling station doors were locked.

[Kim Jung-chul / Supreme Council Member of the Reform Party: "We thought voting was guaranteed until 10 p.m., but they had already locked the doors before then. How could anyone go in and vote under those conditions? I believe this is a serious violation of the right to vote."]

Furthermore, 12 out of the 175 people who received waiting tickets did not vote, and the possibility cannot be ruled out that they turned back because it was so difficult even to enter the polling station.

Reported by Ha Ryung | Video by Lee Seung-hui | Graphics by Choi Jin-hoe


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[Anchor]

The chaos at the No. 2 Polling Station did not subside even after voting ended at 10 p.m. The NEC's poor and complacent response became even more apparent at this time. Although they barely managed to transport the ballot boxes with police assistance, the polling station doors were left open, leaving the remaining election materials completely exposed to protesters.

Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon reports exclusively.

[Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon]

Tension filled the No. 2 Polling Station after voting ended at 10 p.m. as someone attempted to enter through the back door.

However, Hwang Kyo-ahn, then a candidate for Pyeongtaek-eul in Gyeonggi Province who had no connection to Jamsil, Seoul, entered the polling station, followed by attorney Park Ju-hyun, who has consistently raised allegations of election fraud.

Election officials opened the doors for them, raising concerns that this could be a violation of the Public Official Election Act, which bans entry to anyone other than voting staff and authorized personnel.

[Kim Jung-chul / Supreme Council Member of the Reform Party: "They let in an election conspiracy theorist who was also a candidate, and allowed them to film like that."]

On the evening of June 4, 23 hours after the removal of the ballot boxes was blocked by protesters gathered outside the polling station, an exhausted staff member was carried out by paramedics.

Then, around 8:50 a.m. on June 5, police riot squads entered through the back door, and only then were the ballot boxes transported outside.

However, just 13 minutes later, as the police left the polling station, some protesters immediately rushed inside.

Despite other election supplies remaining inside besides the removed ballot boxes, the doors to the storage area were not locked, and there was not a single staff member left on site.

Various election-related materials inside were left completely unprotected, and the polling station was effectively occupied for about 42 minutes. A comparison of the CCTV footage before and after showed a stark difference.

[Kim Jung-chul / Supreme Council Member of the Reform Party: "They should have sealed it through the police and locked it so no one could enter without authorization. It shows that even then, the NEC did not realize how serious this situation was."]

At 5:34 p.m. on June 5, staff members returned to the polling station to clean up the remaining supplies. They gathered the leftover equipment, including a large brown box labeled "No. 138" that had been brought in on the election day of June 3, and transported them to the Songpa-gu Election Commission.

In just 20 minutes, the polling station was reverted back to an apartment community center for senior citizens.

Five days later, on June 10, the court conducted an on-site inspection to find key evidence, such as the ballot storage boxes, but had to return empty-handed.

Reported by Ha Ryung | Video by Yoon Tae-ho | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon


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[Anchor]

Q. How was the CCTV footage obtained?

[Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon: "We previously reported exclusively on the CCTV footage of the Jamsil 4-dong No. 7 Polling Station on June 23. Just like then, this footage was disclosed after the court approved an application for the preservation of evidence filed by Kim Jung-chul, a supreme council member of the Reform Party who was a candidate for Seoul mayor. The CCTV footage released today (July 16) is 67 hours long in total, and it can be described as a record that vividly captures the violation of the public's right to vote. Supreme Council Member Kim stated that he is also considering filing a damage claim by gathering voters from Jamsil 7-dong."]

Q. A symbol of the ballot paper shortage... Is the CCTV key evidence?

[Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon: "That is correct. Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 Polling Station is the only location where voting hours were extended until 10 p.m. It is also a place of significant controversy regarding whether proper procedures were followed during the decision-making process and whether there were issues of fairness compared to other polling stations. This location can be considered a key site for election petitions, investigations, and court hearings. Being able to verify how the actual voting management was conducted and how the NEC responded through objective data like chronological CCTV footage is highly significant. While the National Election Commission announced that voting was suspended for 53 minutes at the time, the CCTV footage shows that it appears to have been suspended for 20 additional minutes. Furthermore, actions such as voting continuing even after the ballot counting had begun, or locking the doors during the extended voting hours, could draw criticism for violating the right to vote. Since election petitions must be resolved within 60 days of receipt, the NEC is expected to deliver an answer around mid-August. However, as SBS has once again exclusively reported, the National Election Commission has already sent guidelines to dismiss the petitions to regional election commissions, meaning controversy is likely to continue regardless of the conclusion. In addition, the party that filed the petition is highly likely to resume the court's election trial, in which case this CCTV footage could serve as one of the crucial pieces of evidence."]

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-hui)