Election workers sort ballots at a counting center set up at Seoul National University gymnasium in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday, during the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]
Election workers sort ballots at a counting center set up at Seoul National University gymnasium in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday, during the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]

A ballot from a different district turned up at a counting center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, after polls closed in the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections Wednesday, and was voided as an abstention, election authorities confirmed.

According to the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission, workers discovered a proportional-representation ballot for an Ansan city council seat around 8:50 p.m. Wednesday at the counting center in Sujeong-gu, Seongnam.

The ballot had been placed inside an out-of-district early voting return envelope along with legitimate ballots, including one for the Seongnam mayoral race.

The election commission voided the misplaced ballot as an abstention.

Police who responded to a report at the scene determined they had no authority to intervene in election commission proceedings and left.

"We processed the ballot in question as an abstention in accordance with the relevant procedures," an election commission official said.

Meanwhile, the Central Election Management Committee said 27,249,586 of the 44,649,908 eligible voters cast ballots in Wednesday's June 3 local elections, putting the preliminary turnout at 61.0 percent.

That is the second-highest turnout ever recorded in a local election. The all-time high was 68.4 percent, set during the first nationwide local elections.


bbo@heraldcorp.com