{
  "id": 19112644,
  "title": "Special counsel raids ballot counting machine companies over suspected collusion",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/09/special-counsel-raids-ballot-counting-machine-companies-over-19112644",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-09T07:32:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times-koreatimes",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/law-crime/20261109/special-counsel-raids-ballot-counting-machine-companies-over-suspected-collusion"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Korea Times reports that a special counsel team, led by special counsel Lee Tae-han, conducted raids on two ballot counting machine companies on Monday. The investigation is centered around allegations of collusion to secure contracts from the election watchdog, the National Election Commission (NEC). The special counsel team, established in September, is probing the NEC's alleged mishandling of resources, including a shortage of ballots during the June 3 local elections. The raids targeted the companies' offices and the residences of their owners, with the team having previously detected signs of collusion by identifying the NEC's repeated rental of ballot counting machines from the two firms over the past decade, amounting to roughly 17.5 billion won ($13 million).",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Yonhap News",
        "title": "Special counsel raids ballot counting machine companies over suspected collusion",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/09/special-counsel-raids-ballot-counting-machine-companies-over",
        "published": "2026-11-09T06:23:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}