It was belatedly confirmed that, in the vote count for the Jeonbuk State superintendent of education election in the 9th nationwide local elections held simultaneously (the June 3 local elections), the tally from one polling place was not reflected in the final public results. The tally for Polling District No. 1 in Junghwasan 1-dong, Jeonju, was omitted, and the tally for Polling District No. 3 in the same dong was reflected twice. Following ballot shortages that occurred in various parts of the country, even an input error in the vote count results has come to light, intensifying controversy over the National Election Commission's lax election management.
The Jeonbuk State Election Commission said in a press release on the 11th that, "In connection with the 9th nationwide local elections held on the 3rd, we erroneously entered the Jeonbuk superintendent of education vote count results for Polling Station No. 1 in Junghwasan 1-dong, Jeonju, and are proceeding with correction procedures."
According to the Jeonbuk Election Commission, the error occurred because the Jeonju Wansan District Election Commission failed to identify during the count that the tally sheet for Polling Station No. 3 in Junghwasan 1-dong was mistakenly recorded as "Polling Station No. 1." The counting center proceeded based on the misrecorded tally sheet, and the results for Polling Station No. 3 were mistakenly entered and reported as the results for Polling Station No. 1.
As a result, the original tally for Polling District No. 1 was properly prepared up to the counting status table, but it was not ultimately entered or reported. Instead, the tally for Polling District No. 3 was entered and reported twice—once as the result for Polling District No. 1 and once as the result for Polling District No. 3.
The actual number of votes in Polling District No. 1 of Junghwasan 1-dong was 1,104. In this district, candidate Lee Nam-ho received 462 votes, candidate Cheon Ho-sung received 597, and there were 45 invalid ballots. However, in the publicly released count, the results from Polling District No. 3—400 votes for Lee, 554 for Cheon, and 40 invalid ballots—were incorrectly reflected as the results for Polling District No. 1.
For the Jeonbuk superintendent of education election overall, there was a discrepancy of 110 votes between the actual tally and the publicly released tally. By candidate, 62 votes for candidate Lee Nam-ho, 43 votes for candidate Cheon Ho-sung, and 5 invalid ballots were each underreported. As a result, the vote gap between the two candidates was released as 1,186,44 votes—19 more than the actual difference. The correct gap is 1,186,25 votes.
The Jeonbuk Election Commission explained that correcting this error would not affect the determination of the winner. Based on the publicly released count, winner Cheon Ho-sung received 506,187 votes and candidate Lee Nam-ho received 387,543. Reflecting the actual tally, Cheon has 506,230 votes and Lee has 387,605.
The erroneous entry was partially identified in the early morning of the 4th, the day after the election. Around 3–4 a.m. on the 4th, the Wansan District Election Commission found that ballots from the actual Polling Station No. 3 were being mistakenly counted as Polling Station No. 1 ballots. In Junghwasan 1-dong, six elections, including the superintendent of education race, were held. For the five other elections excluding the superintendent race, the polling district was corrected to Polling District No. 3 and properly entered and reported. However, the superintendent election results were not fixed.
The Jeonbuk Election Commission said the erroneous entry of the Junghwasan 1-dong Polling District No. 1 tally was identified on the 5th, when the Wansan District Election Commission completed and finalized the entire count and filed its final report. It then reported the background and facts to the National Election Commission and, through the Wansan District Election Commission and the Jeonbuk Election Commission committee, decided to first correct the misrecorded tally in the counting record and the election record. After approval by the National Election Commission, it also plans to correct the incorrect results published on the election statistics system.
The Jeonbuk Election Commission explained that, under the Public Official Election Act, if there is a clear error in the determination of the winner, it must be corrected within 10 days after election day. However, because the scope and method for correcting partial errors in the count that do not affect the determination of the winner, as in this case, are not clearly set out in the relevant rules, it views the revision of the published final tally as an issue requiring careful review.
The Jeonbuk Election Commission said it convened a committee meeting that day to correct the tally and release the accurate results. It also plans to provide all superintendent candidates with a detailed explanation of the specific background of this matter and the measures taken.
A Jeonbuk Election Commission official said, "Although we must reflect voters' intent in the election results without distortion through accurate ballot casting and counting management, we express deep regret and apologies for the error that occurred during the counting process," and added, "We will reexamine the ballot casting and counting management system more carefully and meticulously to enhance trust in the process, and prepare thorough improvement plans to prevent such mistakes."