Special Prosecutor Requests NEC Preserve Ballot Papers from Olympic Park
The special investigation team led by National Election Commission (NEC) Special Prosecutor Lee Tae-han, which is probing the incident of ballot paper shortages during the June 3 local elections, on Friday requested that the NEC preserve the 'uncontested ballot papers' — those raised no objections among — among those removed from Olympic Park. The request came after the public verification process (a procedure in which evidence is examined openly), and constitutes a 'preservation measure' to maintain the ballots in their current state so they are not damaged. Through a press notice on Friday, the special prosecutor's team explained that it had requested preservation of the current state of the ballots and other items that drew no objections during verification, in preparation for possible further examination.
The ballot papers were reportedly moved not to an NEC facility but to a third-party location, where they were sorted and repackaged. The storage site is a secure warehouse designated by the NEC. It is known to be equipped with access control systems, closed-circuit (CC) TV and other security measures, with security personnel stationed around the clock. The special prosecutor's team added that investigators have accompanied the ballots since their removal from Olympic Park, overseeing the entire process of unloading and stacking.
The measure followed the public verification conducted on Wednesday. That day, the team spent 12 hours at the Olympic Park handball gymnasium examining some 2.47 million ballot papers from Songpa District in the June 3 local elections, along with on-site CCTV footage and other items. Of the 433 boxes containing ballot papers, the NEC took back 420 verified as showing no anomalies, while the special prosecutor's team removed 13 boxes containing ballots subject to objections.
The contested ballots were selected after members of the public observer group raised concerns that some papers were stiff, lacking the creases that folding would leave. According to a Democratic Party lawmaker on the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, a total of some 700 ballot papers were flagged during the verification as requiring further examination.
The special prosecutor's team plans to conduct additional forensic analysis of the contested ballots and equipment, with some of the items to be sent to the National Forensic Service for examination.
