Results from separate counting machines and teams happened to match by chance

Entire count conducted openly with party-appointed observers present

Vote count results for Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong [Incheon Metropolitan City Election Commission]
Vote count results for Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong [Incheon Metropolitan City Election Commission]

The Incheon Metropolitan City Election Commission pushed back Monday against claims that identical vote tallies for two leading candidates in the Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong early voting precincts during the 9th nationwide local elections constitute evidence of manipulation, asking the public to refrain from spreading the allegations.

The controversy emerged after some observers noted that early votes cast within the two precincts in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, produced identical totals for both Democratic Party of Korea candidate Park Chan-dae and People Power Party candidate Yoo Jeong-bok, calling the statistical coincidence highly improbable.

The commission said Monday that "only the vote totals for the two leading candidates happened to match — the overall voting data differ between the two precincts," adding that the identical figures were "a coincidental outcome of the counting process."

The full results bear this out. The number of registered early voters in Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong stood at 4,548 and 4,540, respectively — a difference of eight.

Park and Yoo each received 3,030 and 1,440 votes in both precincts. Reform Party candidate Lee Gi-bung received 61 votes in Songdo 1-dong and 47 in Songdo 2-dong — a gap of 14. Invalid ballots numbered 15 and 22, and abstentions were 2 and 1, respectively.

"When all figures are compared, most categories do not match," the commission said. "Suspecting manipulation solely because two specific candidates received the same number of votes is inconsistent with the facts."

The commission also said the two ballot boxes were processed independently during the count. The Songdo 1-dong early voting box was handled by Team 11's ballot-sorting machine and its review and tallying unit, while the Songdo 2-dong box went through Team 4's ballot-sorting machine and review unit.

At the initial sorting stage, the vote totals for the two precincts were in fact different. The figures came to match only after counting staff visually reviewed ballots flagged for re-examination and completed the final classification and tallying.

"The results from different ballot-sorting machines operated by different counting personnel happened to coincide," the commission said. "Claims of intentional manipulation or artificial interference are not true."

The commission also noted that observers nominated by each party and candidate were present throughout the entire counting process. Every step — from opening the ballot boxes and running them through the sorting machines, to visual re-examination, review and tallying, and final commissioner inspection — was conducted in public, leaving no room for fraudulent interference, it said.

"We ask that people refrain from raising or spreading baseless allegations about fairly tallied election results simply because the probability seems low," the commission said. "Rather than making reckless claims that could undermine trust in the election results, judgments should be grounded in objective facts."


gilbert@heraldcorp.com