Local election commissions' post-hoc corrections of hourly voter numbers reported to the Central Election Commission totaled 81 cases in last year's presidential election and 65 cases in the 2024 general election. While most were attributed to simple input errors or omissions, some corrections were made after a considerable time lapse, reigniting controversies over the reliability of the election management system and post-election procedures.

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▲ 81 cases of voter number corrections confirmed in presidential election

According to the Central Election Commission's computer system modification history for the 21st presidential election obtained by Yonhapnews on the 1st through the office of Rep. Ju Jin-woo of the People Power Party, a total of 81 cases of voter number errors reported by district, city, and county election commissions nationwide to the Central Election Commission were recorded.

Most were cases where misentries or mistakes in entering hourly voter numbers were corrected through reports to superiors. The election commissions maintain that this was a procedure to correct simple input errors that occurred during the on-site reporting process.

▲ Diverse cases of misentry and omission by region

Looking at cases by region, Seoul's Gangnam-gu Election Commission made two corrections, including incorrectly entering 1,294 votes at Sinsa-dong Polling Station No. 5 as 1,994 votes.

In Seoul's Songpa-gu, voter numbers were corrected three times, and in Busan's Yeongdo-gu, a correction request was made due to votes from a specific district not being reported.

In Wonju, Gangwon, 105,455 votes were corrected to 105,555 votes, and in Yangyang, Gangwon, incorrect figures were entered due to pressing the report button by mistake.

In Hadong, Gyeongnam, votes from a specific time period were not entered and were recorded as '0 votes' before being changed to 65 votes, and in Gunpo, Gyeonggi, the number of voters at Gunpo 1-dong Polling Station was corrected from 2,490 to 2,590.

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▲ 65 corrections continue in general election

In the 22nd National Assembly general election held in 2024, a total of 65 cases of voter number corrections by election commissions nationwide were recorded.

In Ansan's Danwon-gu, Gyeonggi, an error occurred by entering the remaining number of ballot papers rather than the distributed number, and in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, corrections were made due to the omission of out-of-district voters.

In Gwangju, Gyeonggi, 28,944 votes for proportional representation were incorrectly entered as 28,994 votes, and in Suwon's Gwonseon-gu, Gyeonggi, an error occurred because voting progress for a specific district was not entered.

Sejong City belatedly corrected the omission of Jeonui-myeon voter numbers, and in Osan, Gyeonggi, and Dong-gu, Incheon, cases were confirmed where votes from specific districts were incorrectly entered using cumulative method and subsequently corrected.

▲ Some cases corrected up to 12 hours later

Some cases showed corrections made considerably after the initial report.

In Okjeong 2-dong, Yangju, Gyeonggi, voter numbers reported at 7 a.m. were corrected after 7 p.m., taking approximately 12 hours. In Uiwang, Gyeonggi, figures reported at 7 a.m. were corrected about 11 hours later at 6 p.m., and in Boseong, Jeollanam-do, voter numbers reported at noon were corrected approximately 5 hours later.

These cases are evaluated as factors raising the need for management system improvements, as the time from error discovery to correction showed significant regional differences, separate from whether the errors were simple input mistakes.

▲ Political circles call for investigation of past elections

Rep. Ju Jin-woo of the People Power Party argued for the necessity of comprehensive verification of past elections based on this data.

Rep. Ju stated, "The fact that post-hoc voter number corrections were made in the recent general and presidential elections has been newly confirmed," and "Now that the special prosecution bill for the election commission has passed, an appropriate person must be appointed to conduct investigations without taboos on all past elections and restore damaged voting rights of the people."

However, the correction cases recorded in this data are a compilation of the election commission's corrections of computer system errors, and based solely on the content presented in the article, it cannot be determined that individual correction cases affected election results or constituted misconduct. Most are recorded as administrative corrections to rectify input errors or omissions.