A special counsel team led by Lee Tae-han, investigating ballot shortages during the June 3 local elections, has found that voter turnout figures were falsely entered in 25 districts nationwide. In some regional election commissions, the team also detected signs that election supply storage contracts were steered to a particular company. The special counsel has expanded the scope of its investigation, conducting large-scale raids for a second consecutive day.
On the 15th, the team raided the National Election Commission, four metropolitan and provincial election commissions including those in South Chungcheong Province, Gwangju, South Gyeongsang Province and Gangwon State, and two district-level commissions in Busan's Nam-gu and Seogwipo on Jeju Island, in connection with allegations of falsified turnout entries. The warrants cited charges including forgery of public electronic records and obstruction of official duties by deception.
The team stationed forensic investigators at the National Election Commission to analyze hourly turnout entry records from polling stations nationwide and questioned more than 70 commission officials. Through that process, it confirmed false entries in 25 districts nationwide, in addition to the five districts previously identified by a joint police-prosecution investigation headquarters.
In connection with the suspected favoritism in election supply storage contracts, the team also raided 10 locations, including the election commissions of Busan, South Gyeongsang Province and North Gyeongsang Province, five district-level commissions, the Election Training Institute in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and the residences of commission officials. The raids followed the discovery of indications that these commissions had repeatedly signed warehouse contracts with a particular company since 2022, granting it exclusive preferential treatment.
The special counsel team, launched on the 7th of last month, is investigating 12 allegations including manipulation of voting statistics, irregular hiring and favoritism in private contracts. A day earlier, it raided five locations including the National Election Commission over suspected favoritism in election supply deliveries worth about 5 billion won.