Gwacheon: Investigators raided the headquarters of the National Election Commission (NEC) on Thursday following evidence of data manipulation by some employees to cover up errors in turnout rates during the June 3 local elections, legal sources reported.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the raid is a new development in the investigation into ballot shortages reported on Election Day. The task force, comprising prosecutors and investigators, executed a search and seizure warrant at the NEC office in Gwacheon, located just south of Seoul, and its local branches in Seoul's Songpa, Gangnam, and Seocho wards, which all faced ballot shortages.

The task force revealed that some NEC employees manipulated statistics in their computer system without notifying their superiors, an act intended to cover up errors in voter turnout rates. Normally, the NEC discloses voter turnout hourly on Election Day based on reports from election management workers at polling stations. If errors occur, they are to be corrected through a formal reporting and approval process.

However, the investigation suggests that employees bypassed this process, arbitrarily adjusting numbers. For example, if a polling station mistakenly recorded 1,000 voters instead of 100, the discrepancy of 900 would be distributed across nine other polling stations until their reported turnout matched the erroneous higher number.

The ballot shortage issue has sparked controversy, as it prevented some voters from casting their ballots on Election Day. The task force was established on June 9 by President Lee Jae Myung to investigate this unprecedented event. It has since conducted raids and questioned election officials to uncover the origins of the incident.

During the investigation, messages were reportedly found indicating that NEC employees may have colluded to manipulate voter data.