North Jeolla education chief election results marred by tabulation error

The election commission in North Jeolla Province is in the process of correcting a tabulation error that occurred during the recent provincial education superintendent election. The mistake involved a miscalculation at a polling station in Junju city, where votes from one station were incorrectly attributed to another, leading to a significant omission and duplication of ballots.

Specifically, the commission failed to notice that a polling station's records had been mislabeled. This led to the votes of 1104 individuals being excluded from the count, while the votes of 994 individuals were entered twice. While the error was identified and corrected for five of the six elections held concurrently, the education superintendent race was finalized with the incorrect figures.

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We deeply regret and apologize for the error that occurred during the vote tabulation process, despite the need for accurate vote management so that voters' intentions are reflected in the election results without distortion.

The discrepancy resulted in a difference of 110 votes, impacting the margin between the two leading candidates, Lee Nam-ho and Cheon Ho-seong. The corrected count would reduce their vote difference by 19 votes. However, the election commission assured the public that this correction would not alter the final election results, as the margin between the candidates remains substantial at over 118,000 votes.

The North Jeolla Provincial Election Commission has expressed deep regret for the error and apologized to voters. They have reported the issue to the National Election Commission and will proceed with amending the official records. The commission has pledged to re-examine its vote tabulation system and implement measures to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

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We will re-examine the vote and tabulation management system and prepare measures to prevent recurrence.