A comedy show produced by the National Election Commission in South Korea

log date: 2026-3-7

A harmful amendment to the Public Official Election Act, which a high-ranking public official should never do, has been proposed. This goes beyond undermining democracy and constitutes fraud.

Public Official Election Act Amendment Bill No. 2216546. The purpose of this amendment is to eliminate the need for early voting officials to verify voters and valid ballots. This encourages the acquiescence and facilitation of illegal activities that may occur during elections.

 

Loopholes in the early voting system, which allows voting anywhere in the country and ballot boxes known to be mismanaged, are already a breeding ground for election fraud. Therefore, the requirement for the early voting administrator's stamp seal is a crucial step in the voter verification process, and serves as criterion for determining valid votes during a potential recount.

If even the least voter verification process is omitted, fraud becomes much easier, such as allowing tourists who don't even reside in Korea to vote at any polling station, or for a particular political party to mobilize supporters to vote ten or twenty times. Indeed, there is no voter verification process for the early voting system, which will encourage perpetrators to commit fraud far easily.

In addition, if this amendment is enacted, early voting officials will pre-print ballots instead of stamping them themselves. How could they possibly predict the number of voters who would vote early and then pre-print them? Ultimately, this is a ploy to manipulate election results by legalizing the mass printing of already-marked ballots for the purpose of electoral fraud.

The 11 lawmakers in the screenshot below are pushing this harmful amendment and should be held accountable through an immediate recall by voters and they should be removed from office.

Public Official Election Act Amendment Bill No. 2216546.
From left, Joon-byung Yoon (윤준병), Young-gyo Seo (서영교), Choon-seok Ee (이춘석), Mee-ae Eem (임미애), Seung-chahn Boo (부승찬), Mee-hwa Seo (서미화), Yoon Gihm (김윤), Ho-young Ahn (안호영), Hee-seung Bahc (박희승), Ho-seon Eem (임호선) and Seong-yoon Ee (이성윤). 

The law, which requires to distinguish them from invalid ballots, early voting observers to print ballots, stamp them with their own seal and then give them to voters should never be changed.

It has been revealed that senior officials at the NEC believe that the NEC should be run like a family business, hiring their own children and allowing them to travel or attend graduate school classes during work hours. With such corrupt individuals entrusted with the management of elections, the most crucial aspect of democracy, fraud is bound to run rampant.

Related post:  When the National Election Commission is run like a family business

In fact, a significant number of Korean citizens criticize the National Election Commission of encouraging election fraud and chronic mismanagement. Some are even demanding the dismissal of all NEC staff and reform of the election system.

In the National Assembly that can no longer ignore the people's demands, a small number of lawmakers have begun to acknowledge the need for electoral reform, albeit at a superficial and perfunctory level.

 

Lawmaker Jeong-hoon Joe (조정훈) on the left and NEC Secretary-General Cheol-hoon Heo (허철훈) on the right in the photo.

On February 26, 2026, a video of National Assembly Special Committee on Political Reform member Jeong-hoon Joe (조정훈) questioning National Election Commission Secretary-General Cheol-hoon Heo (허철훈) became a hot topic.

Lawmaker Joe criticized the commission's brazenness, pointing out that in the status report requested by the National Assembly, Secretary-General Heo failed to reflect on the causes of the decline in public trust or propose solutions. Instead, Heo demanded that the current National Election Commission Act abolish the use of official seals and replace them with printed seals.

In his report, Heo promised only to ensure efficient election management, but did not offer any specific plans to address public concerns about election fraud or restore trust.

The NEC shamelessly demanded that the election law be revised to justify their fraudulent activities.

 

What lawmaker Joe pointed out was Article 158, Paragraph 3 of the Public Official Election Act, namely that the National Election Commission has been habitually violating this provision.

" ③ The early voting manager prints a ballot for the relevant election using a ballot issuing machine, stamps the "Early Voting Manager" box with his or her own seal, and without removing the serial number issues it to the voter along with a return envelope."

Lawmaker Jeong-hoon Joe (Shared by a citizen).

When lawmaker Joe asked NEC Secretary-General Heo if he understood the meaning of Article 158, Paragraph 3 of the Public Official Election Act, which requires the early voting supervisor to issue ballots "after stamping their own seals," Heo failed to provide a clear answer.

It appeared as if Heo didn't even understand why the law stipulated that the early voting supervisor must stamp the ballots with her/his own seal before issuing them to the voter.

This means that the NEC has not yet implemented the regulation requiring ballots without the early voting supervisor's seal to be invalidated, which has led to the problems illustrated in the photos below, and has also led to numerous instances of fraud in elections held almost every year.

Case 1.

In past elections, many candidates suspected of fraud have demanded recounts, raising questions about the election results. The NEC has rejected most recount requests, conducting verification only in a very small number of cases. In one such case, citizen So-yeon Gihm (김소연) who was present as an observer during the recount, took these photos and shared them on her own social media.

Below are some evidence photos:

The two glued-together ballots, not a case but many cases of, found during the recount are a mystery because it's impossible for two ballots to remain stuck together after passing one by one through the vote counting machine twice a year ago. Shared by So-yeon Gihm (김소연).

So-yeon Gihm testified that every time these stuck-together ballots emerged from the recount, the judicial researchers nearby were seen individually separating the glued-together ballots. Despite knowing that tampering with evidence was illegal, they brazenly committed this fraud. 

Case 2.

Ballots are required to be folded after marking; however, many ballots discovered during the recount showed no signs of folding. (Shared by So-yeon Gihm)

Shared by So-yeon Gihm.

The law requires that marked ballots be folded at least once before being placed in the ballot box. However, the ballots in the photo showed no signs of folding. Countless bundles of ballots were reportedly crisp, as if freshly printed paper, without even a trace of voters' handling.

The ballots actually marked by voters should appear as shown in the red area of this photo. The lower batches of ballots are known to have been untouched by voters. This suggests that fake ballots bearing a specific candidate's name were placed in the ballot boxes. (Shared by So-yeon Gihm)

Case 3.

Looking at the seal attached to the early voting box in the photo below, you can see traces of the seal being removed and then resealed. This suggests that the early voting box which should not be tampered with until the election day, was opened and then resealed. This fact provides ample evidence of fraud during the election period.

Shared by a citizen.

Case 4.

According to an attorney named Tae-woo Doh who pointed out the suspicious scheme which defies explanation as administrative convenience, all out-of-province early voting was designed to be funneled to the Daejeon Postal Center.

Shared by a citizen.

The Daejeon Postal Center is a closed structure, making it impossible to monitor from the voters. It is also known as a blind spot allowing ballot manipulation even with a small number of staff.

According to Doh's findings, the postal center in question abruptly opened just before the March 2020 general election, and 1.48 million votes, one third of the 4.29 million out-of-province early voting ballots, were processed through this Daejeon Postal Center. 

Case 5.

Shared by a citizen.

According to this evidence, a citizen who was so determined kept a close eye on the ballot box for six hours, skipping even bathroom breaks to record the accurate vote counts. Comparing his/her records with the vote tallies counted by the NEC's electronic voting machines revealed discrepancies of dozens of votes per hour. The citizen who discovered discrepancies of hundreds of votes in just one ballot box at a single polling station, raised an objection, but the NEC staff reportedly dismissed it, claiming that they were too busy.

Shared by a citizen.

The situation revealed by the aforementioned evidence was dire that South Korea could hardly be called a democratic nation.

Many citizens who are outraged believe that no more elections can be held without reforming the electoral system.

South Korean voters are demanding (1) the abolition of early voting and mail-in voting, (2) hand counting on election day, and (3) the replacement of ballot boxes with transparent ones.

This is a comment from a citizen stunned after watching a comedy show produced by the NEC, "I thought there could be no fraud in our country's elections, but this is truly suspicious now. The ballot boxes aren't even fully visible, and they put the ballots inside opaque cloth. The NEC replaced only the holders with transparent plastic, and yet they claim they're transparent? The ballots are completely invisible and the ballot boxes have been replaced with locks instead of seals, it's now much easier to replace them with fake ballots."

As seen in the photo below, the NEC and a broadcasting station's absurd comedy show, designed to deceive the public and prevent reform of the current corrupt election system, clearly demonstrate why Korean citizens desperately demand the reform of electoral system.

Shared by a citizen.

The NEC which is responsible for electoral reform, suddenly announced a plan to replace early voting boxes. However, the details of the plan were so insulting to Korean voters that even citizens who previously had no suspicions of election fraud began to raise questions.

The "reform" proposed by the NEC was nothing more than a trick devised by assuming that voters were stupid, and it was actually a method that made it easy to swap the entire ballot box.

The one on the right is the early voting box used until the last election, while the other on the left is what the NEC claims is a "transparent ballot box." However, contrary to the captions that the NEC and the broadcasting station made it appear as if it were transparent, the ballot box was not. Only the holder for the ballot pouch was made transparent, but the contents of the ballot pouch remain obscured, making it effectively opaque. Therefore, even if the NEC officials inserted fake ballots in the ballot pouch, voters would have no way to verify their contents.

Looking at the evidence presented in Cases 1 and 2 above, the ballots were stiff and showed no signs of being handled by the voters, and in many cases, the tops of two or more ballots were stuck together, a phenomenon never seen in a typical bundle of ballots.

So-yeon Gihm who shared various evidences questioned in public stated, "The ballots subject to the recount request were already counted a year ago. Counted means that all ballots passed through an 'electronic counting machine' which the NEC Korea calls this a "ballot sorter" and is misleading voters. To summarize the counting process, all ballots passed through the so-called "ballot sorter," then passed through the electronic counting machine again, and were sealed. But, how could these ballots still be stuck together? How could the tops of the ballots have remained as glued-together, and how could the folds have disappeared, leaving them as stiff as newly printed paper? Isn't it natural to question such an atypical and illogical situation?"

The NEC responded to her question by claiming that the ballots out-of-province early voting were mailed, and that the adhesive from the envelopes got on the ballots and stuck them together.

Even if we assume that glue left on the envelope accidentally got on the ballots, how could two, five, or six ballots, perfectly aligned at the top of the ballot, still be stuck together like a printed stack of paper?

French ballot box (top left), Russian ballot box (top right), Bangladesh ballot box (bottom left) and Korean ballot box (bottom right). While all three countries' ballot boxes are transparent, South Korea's ballot box symbolizes the corruption of its electoral system. (Shared by a citizen)

• In the Korean electoral system, early voting allows voters to vote anywhere in the country, and they can vote multiple times at different polling stations without worrying about anyone verifying their votes or detecting fraudulent activities like voting multiple times. 
• Mail-in ballots are all sent to the Daejeon Postal Center where voters have no means of monitoring them. It's unclear how they are managed, and there are reportedly no monitors.
• The ballot pouches are not transparent, making it impossible for voters to verify their identity even if they are replaced entirely.
• Furthermore, with the seals removed and locks in place, only election officials can effectively know how many times a ballot pouch has been opened and closed.

Ultimately, South Korea has been holding elections for decades under a corrupt system in which postal services and election officials can easily collude to manipulate the results.

These are the five individuals known to be the main perpetrators in ruining the electoral system.
From left, Ho-joong Yoon (윤호중), Hae-joo Joe (조해주), Hahn-seok Goh (고한석), late Hae-chan Ee (이해찬), and Jeong-cheol Yang (양정철). (Shared by a citizen)

On March 3, 2026, an article was published stating that a civic group called the "Fair Election Practices Coalition" was running a petition to gather public support for "the abolition of the early voting system."

A South Korean citizen is proposing a petition calling for the abolition of early voting and the introduction of a more advanced electoral system including manual vote counting.