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South Korea's National Election Commission (NEC) budgeted ballot production for this local election at 110% of the total electorate, yet it ordered and printed actual ballots at 10% below that level, it has been confirmed. Critics say the NEC partly invited the ballot shortage by increasing the share of early-voting ballots while reducing the print volume of Election Day ballots.
According to reporting by the Seoul Economic Daily on the 11th, the NEC allocated a budget for printing ballots in this year's local election equivalent to 110% of the total electorate (44,649,908 voters), but the actual print volume—combining early voting and Election Day voting—amounted to only about 100%.
Specifically, the NEC ordered a total of 180,000 rolls of early-voting ballot paper last November, worth about 1.767 billion won. Based on local voters, one roll can print ballots for 104 people, meaning the volume was enough for about 18.72 million voters—41.9% of the total electorate.
The rest was produced as Election Day ballots, but fell short of 60% of total ballots. According to data the NEC submitted to the office of Rep. Kim Min-jeon of the People Power Party, the Election Day ballots printed for this local election totaled 25,705,200—57.5% of the electorate. Combined with the early-voting roll paper, the volume amounted to about 100% of the electorate.
The problem is that among actual voters, Election Day voting accounted for 61.2%, far exceeding early voting (including mail-in, at 38.7%). Despite recording the highest early-voting turnout in local election history, actual participation still skewed toward Election Day voting. Critics point out that, in emphasizing the trend of expanding early voting, the NEC may have failed to adequately reflect Election Day demand and regional variations.
Asked why it reduced the actual production volume despite reflecting a ballot-printing budget equal to 110% of the electorate, the NEC explained, "If excessive leftover ballots are generated, it could trigger unnecessary misunderstandings such as election fraud disputes, so we revised the guidelines to reduce the printing ratio."
The fact that the NEC lowered the minimum printing standard for Election Day ballots per regional election commission from the previous 60% of the electorate to 50% late last year is also cited as background to this incident. As the regional minimum-securing standard was lowered, the leeway in managing ballots decreased.
In Songpa-gu, where the ballot shortage was first reported, some polling places experienced shortages despite a final surplus of 42,747 Election Day ballots. All these areas had secured Election Day ballots at the 50% level following the NEC's reduction of the minimum printing ratio. Analysts say that because total ballot volume was reduced, it was difficult to supply ballots to short-stocked polling places in time.
The NEC revised its "Public Official Election Procedure Manual" last year, lowering the minimum printing ratio for Election Day ballots from 60% to 50% of the electorate. The commission cited difficulties in securing ballot printers and in inspection and management, as well as the possibility of fraud allegations arising from excessive ballot printing.
In political circles, the assessment is that the causes of this ballot mismanagement were a combination of factors: △reduced overall ballot production △concentration of volume in early voting △a lowered minimum-securing ratio for Election Day ballots △and flawed decision-making procedures.
As evidence emerged that regional election commissions did not go through sufficient review procedures when reducing the actual ballot print volume, controversy over the propriety of the decision-making is also growing. When Rep. Jeong Hee-yong of the People Power Party conducted a full survey of the "ballot print-quantity reduction decisions" of the 25 district election commissions in Seoul, it was confirmed that the Songpa-gu and Gwangjin-gu commissions processed the ballot print-reduction agenda through written resolution without holding committee meetings.
According to Rep. Jeong, the "Public Official Election Procedure Manual" stipulates that "when it is deemed necessary to reduce the print quantity in light of turnout in recent elections, the print quantity shall be calculated by resolution of the gu, si, or gun commission." However, the two commissions processed the agenda by written resolution instead of a formal meeting, and as a result no meeting minutes remained.
Some in political circles point out that the failure to filter out warning signals over a process spanning several months—from budgeting to volume estimation to regional distribution—reflects a structural problem at the NEC.
Jang Young-soo, a professor at Korea University Law School, noted, "Because the chief decision-makers, from the NEC chairman down to the NEC commissioners, are non-standing members, there is a structural problem in which they fail to properly grasp the commission's work, leading to lax operations." He argued, "A transition to a standing system is needed."
He added, "Election work is not a constant task but an event held at most about once a year, so problems that arose in the previous election tend to be easily forgotten within the organization," and "Election-management training for local public officials deployed during election season should not stop at a single day, but needs to be conducted systematically over at least a week."
