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🇰🇷 South Korea /Elections & Politics

Voting log reveals chaos from ballot shortages in Seoul local elections

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Election officials faced significant confusion and delays during a local election due to a shortage of ballot papers.
  • Ballots ran out at multiple polling stations, leading to requests for additional supplies that were not immediately met, causing further disarray.
  • Similar ballot shortages have occurred in previous national elections, though not with the same level of disruption to voting.

Voters and election workers experienced significant confusion and delays during a recent local election due to a critical shortage of ballot papers. At polling station No. 6 in Jamsil 2-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, officials noted at 3:51 PM that ballot papers were depleted and requested instructions, but received no response. By 4:35 PM, all ballots were gone, forcing a halt to voting.

After the ballot papers ran out at 3:51 PM, we requested instructions but did not receive a response and were told they would call back, but there was no contact.

— Election RecordDetails from the voting log at polling station No. 6 in Jamsil 2-dong, Songpa-gu, highlighting the lack of communication from election officials.

Records reveal a chaotic scene at the Jamsil 2-dong station, with officials first noting a shortage of 238 ballots at 2:53 PM. Despite multiple attempts to contact the election commission between 3:10 PM and 4:00 PM, no action was taken. Later, at 5:59 PM, 50 unnumbered ballots were delivered, leading to further issues with handwritten entries and missing stamps.

Other polling stations reported similar problems. At Jamsil 7-dong station No. 2, officials recognized a shortage of 220 ballots by 3:30 PM, requested 200 more at 3:45 PM, and temporarily suspended voting at 4:46 PM to issue waiting numbers. Additional ballots, with manually entered serial numbers, were received starting at 5:39 PM.

All ballot papers were exhausted at 4:35 PM. After informing voters and observers, voting was suspended.

— Election RecordThe official log entry at polling station No. 6 in Jamsil 2-dong, Songpa-gu, detailing the suspension of voting due to ballot exhaustion.

Across various polling stations, voters abandoned their place in line due to long waits, and some stations resorted to borrowing ballot papers from neighboring locations. One record noted, "Borrowed 400 papers from polling station No. 2 in Garak 2-dong." These incidents highlight a pattern of disarray during the election process.

Noted that 238 ballot papers remained at 2:53 PM and requested additional distribution from the district office.

— Election RecordThe initial entry in the voting log at polling station No. 6 in Jamsil 2-dong, Songpa-gu, indicating the first signs of a ballot shortage.

Further investigation revealed that additional ballot papers were used in some polling stations during the 2018 local elections and the 2023 presidential election. However, previous elections did not involve voters waiting or voting being suspended due to these shortages.

Ballot papers delivered after voting resumed had handwritten errors and missing stamps, changing the neat print to illegible scribbles.

— Article TextDescribes the issues encountered with the late-arriving, unnumbered ballot papers at the Jamsil 2-dong polling station.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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