Over 3,600 votes temporarily omitted from Siheung turnout data in local elections

SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- A recent investigation has exposed an error in the local election data from Siheung, South Korea, where over 3,600 votes were temporarily omitted from the 22,914 recorded voter turnout on June 3. The discrepancy was uncovered by Rep. Kim Eun-hye of the opposition People Power Party, who noticed a sudden surge from 22,914 at 9 a.m. to 42,482 at 10 a.m., an hour later.

The National Election Commission (NEC) attributed the discrepancy to a reporting error by the local election commission, which failed to report the votes from three neighborhoods during the initial update. The Gyeonggi Province election office then instructed to include these votes in the subsequent update, leading to distorted turnout data.

This error caused Siheung to have the lowest turnout rate of 5.2 percent among all municipalities in Gyeonggi Province. If the omitted votes had been included at the time, Siheung likely would not have had the lowest turnout. Kim plans to submit the corrected data to investigative authorities, noting similar findings in other areas.

This revelation follows a task force's launch in June to probe ballot shortages reported on election day, which reportedly forced some voters to turn back without casting their ballots. The task force has since discovered evidence suggesting NEC officials and election workers covered up errors in turnout.