Election commission defends turnout discrepancies, vows reporting overhaul

The National Election Commission said Monday that discrepancies between hourly voter turnout figures and actual voter counts are unavoidable, while maintaining that any errors in those figures have no bearing on final vote tallies or election results.

The commission made the remarks in materials submitted to the National Assembly's special committee on parliamentary investigation into violations of citizens' voting rights and election administration reform. Hourly voter figures are provisional, the commission said, making some divergence from actual counts inevitable.

The commission attributed the erroneous entries to calculation mistakes by polling station managers and data-entry errors by local election offices. Communication errors arising from the phone- and text-message-based reporting process were also cited as a contributing factor.

The commission also addressed cases in which incorrect figures were not corrected immediately. It said it may have judged the numbers to fall within an acceptable margin of error, or may have feared that making corrections would itself invite allegations of election fraud.

The commission said it plans to overhaul how it compiles hourly turnout data. It is considering replacing the current full census of all polling stations with a sample-based survey and extending the reporting interval from every hour to every two hours. The changes are intended to prevent a recurrence of the data-entry controversy that emerged during the June 3 local elections.

The shift in survey methodology is the primary focus. Until now, the commission has manually collected voter counts from all 14,288 polling stations nationwide — a process it acknowledged makes human error difficult to eliminate entirely and leaves room for inaccurate data.

The commission said it is reviewing a sample-based approach modeled on practices in Germany, Japan and France, and plans to commission research to develop a sound sampling methodology. It also proposed assigning at least two additional clerks to each sampled polling station to improve accuracy.

The reporting interval will also be revised. By extending updates from hourly to every two hours, the commission said it aims to reduce erroneous entries and give officials enough time to identify and correct mistakes before figures are released.

The commission is also considering introducing a lag between data compilation and public release. Under the current system, figures are compiled around 15 minutes before and after each hour. The proposed change would compile data on the hour and release it 30 minutes later.

The commission also plans to upgrade its digital infrastructure by building an integrated polling management system to reduce errors in the compilation and reporting process. One key feature would automatically calculate the number of ballots issued once serial numbers are entered.

The system would also include an automatic alert that triggers when voter counts fail to increase from the previous hour or spike abnormally, allowing election offices at all levels to quickly verify and investigate irregular figures.

Transparency measures are also part of the plan. Reporting procedures and standards for digitally processed data will be codified in administrative manuals. The commission is also considering making the entry and revision history of publicly disclosed data — such as hourly voter counts — available for public inspection.