'35 ballots left, protests are intense': Songpa-gu civil servants sounded alarm as polling station ran out of ballots

Police disperse protesters blocking the transfer of a ballot box from Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap]

Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul — the site of an unprecedented ballot shortage during Friday's June 3 local elections — had been supplied with fewer ballots than half the number of registered voters, it has emerged.

According to the National Election Commission and other sources, the polling station had 3,856 registered voters, but the ballot box sent by the Songpa-gu election commission was marked with a printed count of just 1,900 ballots.

That figure amounts to 49.3 percent of the registered electorate — falling short of even half.

The NEC had set a minimum printing ratio of 50 percent of registered voters for this election. Based on that threshold, the required minimum for the station would have been 1,928 ballots — half of 3,856 — but internal guidelines rounding to the nearest 100 resulted in only 1,900 being printed.

As a result, the station exhausted its entire supply of ballots before voting closed, forcing some voters to leave without casting their ballots.

The NEC extended the voting deadline from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., but some voters alleged fraud and demanded a re-election. A large crowd of protesters gathered, and the ballot box remained stranded at the station for nearly three days.

The NEC had previously maintained a minimum printing ratio of 70 percent of registered voters for in-person ballots, but lowered it to 50 percent for this election, citing rising early voting rates and lower expected turnout compared with presidential and general elections.

A ballot box found inside Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, after the ballot box was transferred on Friday. The box, believed to have been sent by the district election commission, bears a printed ballot count of 1,900. A label reading "Box 1 of 1" indicates no additional ballot boxes were supplied. The polling station had 3,856 registered voters. [Yonhap]

Civil servants warned of ballot shortage during voting

Civil servants from Songpa-gu deployed as polling staff had warned their superiors of the ballot shortage and filed reports during the election, it has also emerged.

According to the Seoul chapter of the Korean Government Employees' Union, messages calling for action from Songpa-gu civil servants appeared on election day in a KakaoTalk group chat shared by roughly 150 polling station workers, including both Songpa-gu civil servants and NEC staff.

Signs of a shortage began appearing around 2 p.m., when one message asked how many ballots should remain at each station before requesting additional supplies. The sender added that clerks at polling stations were calling in with concerns about running out, and that the NEC had only responded by saying it was monitoring the situation without committing to sending more.

Messages continued to arrive reporting critically low supplies, including one that read: "35 ballots left and there are still many people waiting."

One district reported a voting suspension after 4 p.m., and messages described chaotic scenes — including one that said "protests over fraud allegations are intense."

Further messages urged the NEC to act: "Can we request police support? The situation on the ground is extremely difficult." "Voting will have to be suspended soon — please take action quickly." "Please respond, NEC. Can districts where voting has stopped hand out queue numbers and allow people to vote after 6 p.m.?"

The ballot box transferred from Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, arrives at the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium, the designated counting center, on Friday. [Yonhap]

The Seoul chapter of the Korean Government Employees' Union issued a statement expressing deep sympathy to Songpa-gu civil servants who suffered mental and physical distress during the confinement incident at the polling station, and condemned the NEC for failing to respond adequately to a situation that was entirely foreseeable.

The statement said polling staff had already recognized the ballot shortage and demanded that the NEC take action, but no appropriate measures were taken. It added that the resulting chaos and public protests were ultimately borne not by the NEC but by the local civil servants who had been supporting the election.

The union also said it was unacceptable that civil servants conducting election duties had been trapped on site for extended periods and subjected to verbal abuse and threats. It noted that civil servants were performing not only election duties but also tasks such as sorting, packaging and transporting election materials, and that this was squeezing their regular public services and causing inconvenience to residents.

The union urged the government to stop shifting the burden and responsibility of national administrative duties onto local civil servants alone, calling for a comprehensive review of election operations and fundamental reforms to strengthen state accountability.

Additional ballots sent to 67 polling stations nationwide

National Election Commission Chairman Noh Tae-ak delivers a public apology over the ballot shortage at the NEC headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday. [Yonhap]

A total of 67 polling stations nationwide required additional ballot deliveries during in-person voting in the June 3 local elections.

Yoon Jae-su, head of the NEC's election policy division, said at a briefing at the Gwacheon government complex on Friday that 67 of the country's 14,288 polling stations had received supplementary ballot supplies due to shortages.

By region, Seoul accounted for 35 of the affected stations, followed by Busan and South Gyeongsang Province with 8, Daegu with 7, Incheon with 6, and Ulsan with 3. Within Seoul, 15 of the affected stations were in Songpa-gu alone.

Of the 67 stations, 17 did not end up using the additional ballots, while the remaining 50 used them in actual voting.

A total of 22 polling stations temporarily suspended voting due to ballot shortages before resuming.

Asked why the shortage was concentrated in certain areas such as the "Gangnam 3 districts" of Seoul, Yoon said shortages had also occurred in the Daegu-North Gyeongsang Province and Busan-South Gyeongsang Province areas, and attributed the problem broadly to the NEC's failure to adequately account for election-day turnout.

ygmoon@heraldcorp.com