It was confirmed that 12 voters who had received waiting tickets at the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station in Songpa-gu, Seoul, during the June 3 local elections ultimately did not vote.
Chairperson Cho Hyun-uk of the National Election Commission fact-finding committee appeared on KBS Radio "Jeongeok Sisa" on the 17th and explained the results of the investigation conducted so far. In particular, Cho gave a detailed account of the situation at the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station, which had sparked controversy.
The Chairperson said, "In Songpa-gu, people arrived before 6 p.m., but due to a shortage of ballots, waiting numbers were issued," adding, "Waiting numbers were given out up to No. 175, and 17 of them were not collected. To guarantee suffrage, the Seoul city election commission said those who were given waiting numbers should be allowed to vote, so the decision was made to extend the voting deadline."
The Chairperson said, "However, of the uncollected waiting tickets, five people voted, and in the end, 12 people ultimately did not vote," explaining, "They came to vote, there were no ballots, they waited, and eventually left without voting—there are 12 such people now."
The Chairperson said, "In a group chat of Songpa-gu election commission township secretaries and clerks, there were reports from around 11:40 a.m. that only a small number of ballots remained," adding, "They had 2,000 unnumbered ballots as a reserve, but even after using those, there was still a shortage, meaning a simultaneous, widespread ballot shortage occurred at the Songpa-gu election commission."
The Chairperson said, "Looking at this case, there was no manual for crisis response, the response was not systematic, reporting was poor—it was an overall failure," pointing out, "In Songpa-gu, even as they were assigned an additional 500 serial-numbered ballots and later another 500, the Seoul city election commission perceived it as routine and remained complacent."