NEC email on voter turnout revisions may widen scope of investigation
The directive, sent on the morning of the local elections, differed from the publicly released guidance, raising questions about organizational wrongdoing.
National Election Commission in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, on July 31YONHAP
An email reportedly fired off by the National Election Commission (NEC) issuing guidance on rectifying voter turnout discrepancies may compel the joint investigation team looking into the local election debacle to expand the probe to the entire watchdog.
The commission instructed regional election offices that if errors occurred in voter counts in the June 3 local elections, the figures could be adjusted and reflected in subsequent reports, according to a Yonhap News Agency report Tuesday.
Yonhap said that the commission emailed regional election offices at around 8:40 a.m. on Election Day with instructions on entering and revising voter turnout figures.
The email instructed officials "not to revise voter count errors even if they occur, in principle," but if "corrections are unavoidable, the correction should be made after the matter is reported to and approved by an official in charge at the National Election Commission."
"As long as there are no major errors in previously reported voter figures, adjustments may be reflected in the next voter count report," it added.
The instruction effectively allowed regional election offices, which have the authority to revise entries in the election management system, to account for relatively minor discrepancies in later reports instead of immediately correcting earlier figures.
A joint police-prosecution investigation team is examining whether the practice amounted to statistical manipulation or an attempt to conceal reporting errors.
The contents of the email differ in part from the public election management guidelines released by the commission ahead of the local elections on June 3, during which a ballot shortage set off a string of protests over disenfranchisement.
Former National Election Commission Chairperson Roh Tae-ak attends the third plenary session of the National Assembly's special committee investigating the ballot paper shortage during the ninth nationwide local elections and broader election management reforms on July 1.YONHAP
The election day guidelines instructed officials to “thoroughly verify all information entered into the election management system because the data will be made public.”
They also stated that when revisions were necessary, officials should clearly state the reason for the correction, and regional election offices should determine whether the justification was appropriate before approving any changes.
The publicly released guidelines, however, did not include the email's instructions that revisions should be avoided in principle or that minor discrepancies could instead be reflected in subsequent reports.
The joint investigation team has secured evidence suggesting that the commission distributed the instructions to regional election offices and is investigating the matter, according to Yonhap.
Demonstrators chant slogans on June 23 outside the vote-counting center at the Handball Gymnasium in Olympic Park, Songpa District, southern Seoul, where they have demanded accountability for the election management failures.NEWS1
Investigators also plan to determine whether senior officials at the commission were involved in drafting or distributing the email, or had been informed of its contents. They are also expected to examine whether similar methods were used to handle voter-count discrepancies in previous elections.
If investigators confirm that the guidance was prepared and distributed at the commission level, the probe could expand beyond misconduct by individual employees to examine whether there was organizational wrongdoing. Whether reflecting discrepancies in later reports constituted statistical manipulation still remains subject to the ongoing investigation.
The joint investigation team is also scheduled to question an election official from Gangnam District, southern Seoul,as a suspect on suspicion of dereliction of duty in connection with a shortage of ballots during the election.
Investigators plan to question other NEC officials as witnesses over allegations that Roh Tae-ak, the former chief of the election watchdog, and others took overseas trips that violated protocol.
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.
