Over 2,000 Cases of Voters Signing Others' Names in Electoral Roll During Last Presidential Election

It has been revealed that more than 2,000 cases occurred nationwide during the 21st presidential election where voters signed the electoral roll under someone else's name.

This is the first time the total scale of such signing errors in the electoral roll has been confirmed.

According to data submitted by the National Election Commission (NEC) to Representative Kim Min-jeon of the People Power Party, a total of 2,359 cases were identified nationwide during the 21st presidential election where voters signed the signature column belonging to another person on the electoral roll.

By region, Seoul had the highest number with 554 cases, followed by Busan with 245, Incheon with 161, and North Gyeongsang Province with 123.

Typically, voters undergo identity verification at polling stations and sign the receipt column next to their name on the electoral roll when receiving their ballot.

The analysis suggests that these signing errors occurred because voters signed the wrong row above or below their own, or because poll workers failed to properly verify voters with the same name and directed them to the wrong signature column.

Although the NEC revised its manual last December to require verbal confirmation of dates of birth for voters with the same name and improved work procedures—such as using markers to prevent confusion between rows—these measures failed to prevent similar incidents.

On the day of the June 3 local elections, a case occurred at a polling station in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, where a voter mistakenly signed another person's column due to a poll worker's error. Additionally, a report was filed at a polling station in Eomgung-dong, Sasang-gu, Busan, stating that "the electoral roll had already been signed."

It was determined that this incident was caused by another voter with the same name having previously signed the wrong column.

It is difficult to conclude that these signing errors directly affected the election results.

However, as such cases have been cited in every election as grounds for suspicions of duplicate or proxy voting, critics argue that the National Election Commission should have taken definitive steps to prevent recurrences to protect the procedural integrity of elections.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Ryu Ji-soo | Graphics by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.