NEC told local election bodies to spread over-entered voter counts across polling stations to avoid suspicion, lawmaker says

The National Election Commission instructed local election authorities that had over-entered voter counts on the day of the June 3 local elections to spread the inflated figures across multiple polling stations to avoid raising suspicion, People Power Party Rep. Kim Eun-hye said Monday.

According to an internal NEC document titled "Report on Confirmed Matters Regarding Erroneous Voter Count Entries (Jincheon-gun, Gimpo)" obtained through Kim's office, the NEC received an inquiry from the North Chungcheong Province election commission on election day about how to handle an over-entered voter count at Jincheon-eup Polling Station No. 2 in Jincheon-gun.

The NEC advised correcting the excess voter count by distributing the figures across other polling stations in Jincheon-eup, rather than correcting only the station where the error occurred.

The commission added that simply reducing the voter count at the affected station to the actual figure would decrease the total publicly reported voter count for Jincheon-gun as a whole, and that this could invite allegations of irregularities.

The NEC also prepared and sent a sample table showing how to redistribute and correct the voter turnout figures across all polling stations in Jincheon-gun.

The NEC received a similar inquiry from the Gyeonggi Province election commission regarding an over-entered voter count at Guraedon-g Polling Station No. 2 in Gimpo.

In that case as well, the NEC advised distributing the over-entered voter count across other polling stations in Guraedon-g, and attached a sample table showing how to redistribute the corrected turnout figures across all stations in the area.

However, while all the erroneous turnout figures for Guraedon-g polling stations were ultimately corrected, the corrections in Jincheon-gun were never carried out due to procedural delays in approving the correction request.

Kim said the NEC's guidance amounted in effect to instructions for manipulating voter turnout figures.

"The nationwide voter turnout manipulation is not simply a case of local election commissions going rogue — it is a clear act of election fraud carried out by the National Election Commission with intent, specificity and repetition," Kim said. "More than a week after this unprecedented election manipulation came to light, Cheong Wa Dae and the president have not issued a single statement and remain silent."

She added that a special prosecutor should be launched without delay to conduct a thorough investigation into the NEC's election manipulation, with no one above scrutiny.