During early voting for the 6·3 presidential election, a ballot marked for Lee Jae-myung, the candidate from the Democratic Party of Korea, was found in a return envelope received by a voter, prompting the National Election Commission to note that it was 'suspected to be a hoax' and refer the case to the police for investigation. However, the police investigation revealed that it was not a hoax but an error by a voting official. The Election Commission expressed regret for having doubted the voter.
According to the police and the Election Commission on the 18th, the Yongin West Police Station received a 112 report around 7:10 a.m. on the last day of early voting, on the 30th of last month, stating that a 'ballot marked for Lee Jae-myung was found folded in half in a return envelope distributed to a voter at the early voting site established at the community center in Seongbok-dong, Suji District, Yongin City.'
A young female voter, referred to as Ms. A, was attempting to cast an out-of-district vote at the time. The report was made after she discovered the problematic ballot inside the return envelope and alerted the authorities.
In response, around 11:26 a.m., the National Election Commission informed the media that 'the relevant voter is suspected of having received a ballot marked by another person and placing it into an empty return envelope to provoke confusion at the voting site,' and stated that it would refer the case to the police for investigation.
The police conducted an investigation involving Ms. A, another voter referred to as Ms. B who cast an out-of-district vote earlier on the same day, the voting official, observers, and Election Commission staff. The investigation found that the incident was caused by mistakes made by the voting official and Ms. B.
The voting official mistakenly handed Ms. B one ballot and two return envelopes. Ms. B realized inside the voting booth that there were two return envelopes. Due to a mistake, she placed the marked ballot into an envelope without a label rather than into the labeled return envelope. She then placed the labeled return envelope into the ballot box and returned the envelope containing the marked ballot to the voting official.
Subsequently, the voting official handed the returned envelope back to Ms. A, leading to the incident. There were no other out-of-district voters during the time Ms. A and Ms. B were voting. Ms. A completed her voting process normally after reporting the incident. Ms. B's ballot was invalidated upon being publicly disclosed.
In response, the Election Commission stated, 'This was an accidental incident caused by a simple mistake of the voting official combined with confusion from the voter.' They added, 'There were numerous voting interference actions from groups alleging electoral fraud during the early voting period, resulting in much confusion at the polling stations,' and explained, 'We swiftly referred the matter for investigation to confirm the facts clearly.'