Election agency budgeted for 110 percent voter turnout, printed only half

Korea's election agency is facing a deepening credibility crisis after a ballot shortage on Election Day left voters at over a dozen polling stations unable to cast their votes, with new figures showing the agency had budgeted to print enough ballots for 110 percent of eligible voters but printed only half that number.

The incident has left political parties on both sides calling for accountability from the National Election Commission (NEC), and experts say it has exposed deep structural problems in an agency that has operated for decades with little external oversight.

Fourteen polling stations in Seoul ran out of ballot sheets on Wednesday, forcing voting to continue until 10 p.m. — four hours past the original closing time. Twelve of the affected stations were in Songpa District, southern Seoul, with one each in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, and Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul. The extended hours meant some voters were still casting ballots as live vote counts were being broadcast on television nationwide.

Chaos continued as a crowd gathered outside one of the stations that had run out of ballots, in Jamsil 7-dong in Songpa District, physically blocking ballot boxes from being removed and demanding that counting be halted and the election rerun.

“This was a serious situation in which voting was distorted, with some voters casting their ballots while watching exit poll results and vote-counting updates," Lee Hyun-chool, a professor of political science at Konkuk University, said.

The political backlash from both left and right was swift.

The main conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP) leader Jang Dong-hyeok visited the NEC in the early hours of Thursday morning and met with NEC chairperson Rho Tae-ak, demanding that counting be suspended and the election held again. After counting concluded, PPP's election campaign committee co-chairman Song Eon-seok said he had "proposed to the Democratic Party of Korea that an emergency parliamentary investigation into the NEC be conducted." Oh Se-hoon, who won reelection as Seoul mayor, said Thursday that "strict accountability must follow without fail."

The ruling liberal Democratic Party (DP) pressed for the resignation of NEC Secretary General Heo Cheol-hoon. "We must consider whether the secretary-general, who bears responsibility for the NEC's administration, should step down," Cho Seung-rae, the party's secretary general, told reporters.

The NEC issued a public apology on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, it announced it would establish a committee to investigate what happened. However, it drew a line at calls for a rerun, saying the incident "does not constitute grounds for postponing or rerunning an election under the Public Official Election Act."

How did the shortage happen?

The NEC said the number of printed ballot sheets in Songpa District was equivalent to 50 percent of its registered voters. Gwangjin District and Gangnam District, where polling was also suspended, printed ballots for 50 percent and 55 percent of their electorates, respectively. This was in line with NEC guidelines instructing regional commissions to secure "a minimum of 50 percent of registered voters" worth of ballots for Election Day. Printed ballots are distributed to polling stations, with reserves held at district election offices to be dispatched where and when needed.

“The projection of voter turnout exceeding 70 percent was based on the combined early-voting rate and election-day turnout, but heavier-than-expected crowds at multiple polling stations led to confusion and disruptions," said an NEC official.

But the controversy deepened when it emerged that the NEC had received budget from local governments on the basis that it planned to "print ballots equivalent to 1.1 times the total number of registered voters" — yet printed only half that number.

“Since a supporter of a particular political party leader seized unused ballot papers at a polling station in 2022 and raised allegations of election fraud, we have made efforts to reduce the number of leftover ballots," said an NEC official. "Any unspent budget would be returned to local governments."

Critics were unconvinced. “The National Election Commission was so complacent that it printed too few ballots, despite having encouraged people to vote," said Jung Hoe-ok, a political science professor at Myongji University.

NEC's pattern of failures and its structural problems

This is not the first time the NEC has faced controversy. During the early voting period for the 2022 presidential election, ballots cast by Covid-19 patients and those in quarantine were found to have been transported in baskets and shopping bags, which triggered claims of election fraud and miscounts. During last year's presidential election, a voter at a Seoul polling station eating a meal while still holding an uncast ballot after complaining about long lines also called for public backlash.

Experts say the NEC's problems are structural. A key issue is that eight of its nine commissioners serve in non-standing roles, including the chairman, who by convention is a sitting Supreme Court justice serving concurrently.

“With only one standing commissioner at the National Election Commission, its ability to control and understand the organization is limited, and it is unable to properly supervise staff,” professor Jang Yeong-soo at Korea University School of Law said. “It is a structure in which organizational laxity is bound to occur. The longstanding practice of having a sitting Supreme Court justice concurrently serve as chair of the National Election Commission should be reformed, and the number of standing commissioners should be increased.”

The NEC has also operated as a constitutionally independent body since 1960 without meaningful external oversight.

In 2023, allegations emerged that senior NEC officials had arranged irregular employment for their children and relatives. When the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) launched an investigation, the NEC refused to cooperate, arguing it was "constitutionally independent and not subject to BAI inspections," and filed a constitutional dispute. The Constitutional Court sided unanimously with the NEC in February last year.

"The only institution that can check the NEC is the National Assembly, but even the National Assembly is in a weaker position relative to the commission," said one government official under conditions of anonymity. "The moral hazard — like NEC staff taking mass parental leave during election season — happens precisely because there is no external oversight."

The commission's political independence has also been called into question. The NEC's nine commissioners are appointed in three groups of three: by the president, the National Assembly and the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Critics argue this structure leaves the body exposed to political influence.

Past controversies bear this out. In January 2019, under the Moon Jae-in administration, former special adviser to Moon's election campaign Cho Hae-joo was appointed as a standing NEC commissioner, drawing accusations of political favoritism. More recently, President Lee Jae Myung's appointment in January of attorney We Chul-whan, a classmate from the Judicial Research & Training Institute, drew criticism from the PPP as "a textbook case of cronyism."

"While the three appointing bodies appear to create checks and balances, the president and ruling party together, and the chief justice appointed by the president, are all making appointments, making it impossible to avoid concerns about political bias," Han Sang-hee, a professor of law at Konkuk University Law School, said.

BY LEE AH-MI, RYU HYO-RIM, KIM GYU-TAE [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]