(LEAD) Gaps found between final voter count, on-site tallies from local elections: data

Gaps have emerged between the final voter count and on-site tallies from the June 3 local elections, according to data obtained by lawmaker Rep. Chung Choon-saeng, chairman of the Rebuilding Korea Party. The discrepancies were discovered in 1,971 out of 3,558 neighborhoods nationwide. The National Election Commission (NEC) data revealed that 29 areas, including Seoul, Busan, and Gyeonggi Province, reported at least a 100-person discrepancy in voter numbers.

Under the current system, polling station workers manually count voters on election day, then report those numbers to the NEC. The final vote tally is determined afterward by casting votes. The NEC data showed a polling station in Anseong, south of Seoul, initially reported 2,105 voters at 6 p.m. but the final count was 1,494. Another polling station in Busan registered 7,137 voters at closing time, yet the final tally was 7,922.

These findings come as a joint prosecution-police team, probing ballot shortages on election day, discovered that NEC officials may have manipulated hourly voter turnout updates to conceal potential errors. The NEC maintains that its hourly updates are preliminary figures and that discrepancies with actual voter numbers are unavoidable.

During a parliamentary special committee hearing, the NEC argued that such discrepancies do not alter final voter counts or election results. The commission suggested adopting a sample-based system to estimate voter turnout, citing that human error cannot be ignored in the current system of manual counting from 14,288 polling stations.

They also proposed releasing the turnout rate every two hours, rather than hourly, to give election officials more time to verify figures.