Special prosecutor team to conduct voluntary verification Wednesday
The special prosecutor investigating allegations of misconduct at the National Election Commission — including a ballot shortage that emerged after the June 3 local elections — moved Tuesday to seize election-related documents stored at the handball arena inside Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul.
The special prosecutor's team said it executed a search and seizure warrant at the facility, deploying 12 people — including two prosecutors and forensic investigators — to secure election-related documents and closed-circuit television footage stored there.
The team plans to obtain documents produced during the vote-counting process in Songpa-gu during the June local elections to advance its investigation into the ballot shortage allegations. It also intends to secure CCTV recordings from the storage site ahead of a voluntary verification scheduled for Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the team plans to conduct a voluntary verification of approximately 2.47 million ballots from Songpa-gu stored at the Olympic Park handball arena, along with on-site CCTV footage and other materials, in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the National Election Commission and Korea Sports Industry.
Through the verification, the team will examine the integrity of the ballots — checking for any increase or decrease in their number and any signs of forgery — as well as the equipment and documents used in the voting and counting process. It also plans to review CCTV footage at the storage site for signs of unauthorized entry and check ballot quantities and the condition of stamps and printing. Any irregular ballots will be separately classified for two rounds of detailed forensic analysis.
"This was carried out following a resolution by the full committees of the National Election Commission and the Songpa-gu Election Commission, both of which agreed to the voluntary verification and decided to cooperate with the necessary procedures," the team said.
bell@heraldcorp.com
