SEOUL — The National Election Commission acknowledged ballot shortages at 50 polling stations during the local elections on June 3, 2026. This led to voting suspension at 22 polling stations, including 19 in Seoul, while citizens waited for ballots.
Emergency ballot deliveries may have violated Article 151 of election law, which mandates that ballots must arrive before election day. One polling station in Songpa remained open until 10 p.m., four hours past the legally mandated closing time. The Songpa ballot box was blockaded for two nights by residents alleging election irregularities, and an election worker remained inside the blockaded area for 22 hours before leaving on a stretcher. Approximately 1,000 riot police were deployed on June 5 to secure and transport the ballot box to a counting center. The ballot box arrived at the counting center 35 hours after voting officially ended.
Some voters cast ballots after 6 p.m., after media organizations had already published exit-poll projections. Some ballots cast in Songpa were not reflected in the official tally until two days after the election concluded. The inclusion of these delayed ballots shifted the Seoul Metropolitan Council proportional representation result to a People Power Party lead of 44.00 percent to 43.96 percent. This adjusted vote count changed the allocation of one council seat. The Seoul Metropolitan Council corrected its initial press release regarding the election outcome.
The commission initially attributed the ballot shortage to higher-than-expected voter turnout. The commission later stated that Songpa had sufficient ballots overall but distributed them unevenly across 146 locations. The National Election Commission revised a guideline after the 2025 presidential election to limit election-day ballot printing to 50 percent of eligible voters. Officials in Songpa printed ballots at this 50 percent minimum despite an early voting participation rate of 23.3 percent. The commission had requested a budget to print ballots for 110 percent of registered voters while instructing local offices that 50 percent would be sufficient. The commission acknowledged having no established procedure for polling stations that exhausted their ballot supply, despite internal projections forecasting a 73.6 percent turnout.
Noh Tae-ak, Chairman of the National Election Commission, resigned on June 5. The head of the Seoul regional election commission also resigned on June 5. The National Election Commission formed a fact-finding committee consisting of external experts. The People Power Party demanded a revote and stated it would pursue legal action. A private citizen filed a constitutional complaint regarding the administration of the election. Incumbent Oh Se-hoon won the mayoral election in Seoul, which was not finalized until June 5.
No independent assessment was available for this report.