What will the special counsel team do with the 13 ballot boxes it retained from the Songpa Ward election inspection?

The team will inspect the ballots in those boxes further in response to objections raised by on-site observers. Some ballots may be sent to the National Forensic Service for closer examination.

Why is Lee Tae-han’s team examining ballots from South Korea’s June 3 local elections?

The investigation concerns an unprecedented ballot shortage on election day that forced some people to leave without voting. The team says its examination is intended to determine whether ballots were tampered with or forged, not to recount the votes.

How were the ballot boxes removed from the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium, and what happened during the operation?

Riot police were deployed during Wednesday’s inspection to prevent clashes, and no major incidents were reported. People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok staged an overnight sit-in to try to stop the boxes from being removed, and later alleged that the inspection revealed signs of election fraud.

Special counsel team moves local election ballots to storage from handball arena

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Summary

Special counsel Lee Tae-han’s team moved ballot boxes from the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in southeastern Seoul on Thursday after inspecting ballots connected to the June 3 local elections. The team examined 2.47 million ballots cast in Songpa Ward, placing them in about 420 boxes; all but 13 were taken to a National Election Commission storage facility. The remaining boxes will undergo further inspection, while some ballots may be sent to the National Forensic Service. The team says the examination is not a recount but is intended to determine whether tampering or forgery occurred.

Key Facts

The inspection lasted more than 12 hours and continued until past midnight, according to the National Election Commission.
Under election law, the ballots sent to the commission’s storage facility will be kept for the duration of the elected officials’ terms.
The special counsel team retained 13 boxes for further examination based on objections raised by on-site observers.
Protesters had blocked the ballots’ removal from the gymnasium since June, calling for accountability and a rerun of the elections.
About 100 lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties watched the inspection, along with on-site observers chosen by the National Assembly and dozens of journalists.

By Yonhap

Published Oct 29, 2026 8:31 am KST
Updated Oct 29, 2026 10:16 am KST

Ballot boxes from the June 3 local elections in Songpa-gu are being moved out of the Handball Gymnasium in Olympic Park in Seoul following a public inspection by a special counsel team, Thursday. Yonhap

A special counsel team on Thursday moved boxes of ballot papers out of a handball arena where they had been kept since June's local elections as part of its investigation into ballot shortages on election day.

Special counsel Lee Tae-han's team removed the ballot boxes from the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in southeastern Seoul after conducting an on-site inspection of the 2.47 million ballots for more than 12 hours until past midnight, according to the National Election Commission (NEC), the state election watchdog.

Lee's team has been investigating an unprecedented shortage of ballots that occurred on the day of the June 3 local elections, which forced some people to turn back without casting their votes.

All 2.47 million ballots, which had been cast in the southeastern Songpa Ward, were inspected by the special counsel team and placed in some 420 boxes, of which all but 13 were taken to a storage facility managed by the NEC in the capital area, a commission official said.

In accordance with the election law, those ballots will be stored for the duration of the elected officials' terms.

The remaining 13 boxes were taken by the special counsel team, and the ballots inside them will be inspected further based on objections raised by on-site observers. Some of them will be sent to the National Forensic Service for closer examination.

The gymnasium was used as a vote counting center during the elections, but protesters had blocked the ballots' removal since June amid calls for accountability for the shortage and a rerun of the elections.

Lee's team has said the examination will not serve as a recount of the votes and is aimed at determining whether there had been any acts of tampering or forgery.

The handball arena had effectively been sealed by protesters since the vote count in June. Riot police were deployed to the site during Wednesday's inspection to prevent clashes, and no major incidents have been reported.

In addition to on-site observers chosen by the National Assembly, some 100 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties watched the inspection. Dozens of journalists also took part.

Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the main opposition People Power Party, staged a sit-in at the arena overnight to stop the ballot boxes from being removed.

"The NEC and the special counsel took the ballot boxes and disappeared as if they were engaging in some operation with the police and fleeing in the middle of the night," Jang told reporters. "The evidence to preserve the people's precious votes has disappeared."

Jang went on to claim the inspection revealed "numerous" instances of election fraud, citing damaged seals on ballot boxes, boxes containing ballots from other districts, and ballots of different colors or layouts.

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