Soldier cast two ballots in absentee vote ahead of June 3 local elections

A soldier cast two ballots during the absentee voting process ahead of the June 3 local elections, marking each on a separate ballot and placing them in two different envelopes — one his own and one belonging to another soldier — in what authorities have confirmed as a double-voting incident.

According to an official notice from the National Election Commission obtained by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Kim Eun-hye on Tuesday, the incident occurred on May 28 at a military unit in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province.

The unit had placed absentee ballot envelopes addressed to multiple soldiers together in the administrative office without separating them, then directed soldiers to enter the office one by one to mark their ballots and leave.

During this process, one soldier picked up an envelope bearing another soldier's name without checking it carefully and marked the ballot inside. He then marked the ballot in his own envelope as well, resulting in a single person casting two votes.

The soldier whose envelope had been taken filed a complaint with the NEC's public grievance portal, saying he had not received his ballot and requesting that his right to vote be protected. The NEC then sent a follow-up notice to the relevant election commission based on the unit's report and the complaint.

An Army official said the incident involved a soldier mistakenly treating another person's absentee ballot return envelope as his own, adding that the military had taken steps to protect the affected soldier's voting rights, including granting him official leave to vote in person at a local polling station. However, the military reportedly failed to explain adequate follow-up measures to the affected soldier promptly after discovering the error, which led him to file the grievance.

The NEC classified the case as an "erroneous distribution of absentee ballot return envelopes" and instructed election officials to set aside the return envelope containing the incorrectly marked ballot during the count, leaving it unopened and declaring it invalid.

The commission also updated the affected soldier's entry in the voter registry, changing his status from "absentee voter" to "absentee voting not conducted," so he could vote in person at his registered polling station on election day. It asked the polling station's election manager to be informed of the situation and to facilitate his vote.

On the question of criminal action, an NEC official said it was difficult to view the soldier's actions as intentional, adding that the commission had moved to ensure both soldiers' voting rights were protected while declining to accept the ballot that did not belong to the soldier who marked it.

Some observers, however, have questioned whether the incident can be dismissed as a simple mistake, given that the soldier marked two separate ballots and placed each in a different envelope. Broader concerns have also been raised about lax management of absentee voting procedures for military personnel.

Kim called the double-voting incident in the administrative office "a regression that turns back the clock on this country's democracy," and said soldiers' political rights during absentee and early voting must be more thoroughly protected. She also called for the defense minister to be summoned as a witness in a parliamentary investigation.