Ballots from the June 3 Chungju mayoral election are recounted at the gymnasium on the local campus of the Korea National University of Transportation in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on July 15.JOONGANG ILBO
A hand recount of the Chungju mayoral election in North Chungcheong on Wednesday left the outcome unchanged, though the winning margin narrowed slightly.
The North Chungcheong Province Election Commission said the recount confirmed 52,961 votes for Lee Dong-seok, the incumbent from the People Power Party (PPP), and 52,839 for former Democratic Party (DP) candidate Maeng Jeong-seop.A total of 2,277 ballots were ruled invalid.
Compared with the original tally from the June 3 local elections, Lee lost one vote and Maeng gained one, narrowing Lee’s margin from 124 votes to 122. The number of invalid ballots was unchanged.
The Chungju race was the first of 709 election petitions filed nationwide to reach the recount stage. Maeng filed his petition on June 12, arguing that the narrow 124-vote margin and the high number of invalid ballots warranted further review.
“A large number of ballots were ruled invalid, and the result flipped in the early morning hours,” Maeng said. “There may have been confusion because the vote-counting staff were physically exhausted by that point.”
The recount required officials to manually examineall 108,077 ballots cast in the election.
Officials unsealed 18 ballot boxes, including 12 from June 3 polling stations and the rest containing early ballots. They then retallied each candidate’s votes and reassessed which ballots were invalid.
A total of 47 verification staff, split across six tables, carried out the review.
Ballot storage boxes are put down during a review of ballots from the Chungju mayoral election at the Korea National University of Transportation gymnasium in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on July 15.JOONGANG ILBO
They checked each ballot against the criteria used to determine validity: whether the official marking device was used properly, whether the commission’s seal appeared on the ballot, where the mark was placed, whether more than one candidate was marked, whether a candidate’s check box was damaged and whether any letters or symbols such as triangles, circles or Xs had been written on it.
After the inspection, ballots were run through counting machines at each table before being forwarded for tabulation. Six standing commissioners of the provincial election commission reviewed the results, and the commission chair gave final approval.
The process differed from how ballots are counted on election night, when sorting machines separate ballots by candidate and route unclear ones into a separate pile for manual review. In Wednesday's tally, every single ballot passed through a recount staffer's hands.
Maeng attended the recount as the petitioner and asked North Chungcheong Election Commission Chair Cho Mi-yeon to release scanned images of the ballots from the original count.
When the request was denied, the DP candidate and his supporters tried to block officials from opening the ballot boxes. After a 25-minute standoff, police forcibly removed Maeng from the venue.
Three more recounts are scheduled: the Gyeonggi provincial assembly race for the Seongnam 7 constituencyon July 21, the Busan Metropolitan Council race for the Buk District 1 constituencyon July 23 and the Tongyeong mayoral race in South Gyeongsang on July 27, according to the National Election Commission.
In the Busan race, decided by 26 votes, PPP candidate Kang Young-doo won with 19,351 votes against DP candidate Mun Yeong-nam. Of the 40,097 ballots cast in the district, 38,676 were valid, and 1,421 were invalid.
Munhas filed a petition seeking to invalidate the result, arguing the review of invalid ballots was insufficient.
Former Democratic Party candidate Maeng Jeong-seop calls on North Chungcheong Province Election Commission Chair Cho Mi-yeon to release CCTV footage during a ballot review in a petition seeking to invalidate the Chungju mayoral election at the Korea National University of Transportation gymnasium in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on July 15.JOONGANG ILBO
The Tongyeong mayoral race was decided by 44 votes. Kang Seok-ju, the Democratic Party incumbent,won with 33,626 votes to defeat PPP candidate Chun Young-gee, who received 33,582.
Chun has filed a petition challenging the result. Of the 69,693 ballots cast, 68,663 were valid.
The election commission plans to rule on the Chungju petition by Aug. 11, based on Wednesday’s recount.
“When a recount changes the winner, the commission accepts the petition seeking to invalidate the election and moves to determine the new winner,” an election commission official said. “When the result remains unchanged, the petition is dismissed within the statutory review period.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
