On May 29, the first day of early voting for the June 3 nationwide local elections, an incident occurred in which President Lee Jae-myung stepped out of the voting booth holding his ballot before going back in. The People Power Party (PPP) immediately sought to turn it into an issue, saying, "It should have been processed as an invalid vote on the spot."
President Lee visited the Samcheong-dong Community Center in Seoul's Jongno district that day with his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, to cast an early vote. After presenting his ID and completing identity verification, President Lee received eight ballots and entered the voting booth. But he soon stepped out of the booth and asked an election worker, "Is it okay if the circle stamp is not complete and only half is marked?"
President Lee asked again, "Won't it become an invalid vote if it's only marked halfway like this?" After hearing the election worker's response indicating that it would not become an invalid vote, President Lee went back into the voting booth, finished marking his ballot, and placed the papers into the ballot box together with Kim. According to the presidential office, the couple voted that day for the Incheon Gyeyang-eul district, where their home address is registered.
The matter escalated into a legality controversy along with the PPP's objections. Under the Public Official Election Act, voters cannot disclose their ballots to others, and any disclosed ballot is processed as an invalid vote. Song Eon-seok, the PPP floor leader, pointed out on his Facebook, "If the report is true, President Lee's vote should have been processed as invalid on the spot," calling it "a very serious matter." Park Sung-hoon, head of the central election committee's public relations team, fiercely criticized, "Using the early voting site as a stage to expose a ballot marked for the Democratic Party is blatant campaigning."
In front of the early voting site that day, dozens of members of "Korea People First," a human rights organization for people with developmental disabilities, staged a picket protest demanding that the National Election Commission produce pictorial ballots and introduce voting assistants. President Lee directly instructed Joo Jin-woo, the secretary for public conflict mediation, to "report on how much it would cost (to produce pictorial ballots) and why it cannot be done."
Meanwhile, that day, ruling and opposition party leaders, major political figures, and candidates across the country participated in early voting and encouraged their supporters to vote. Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae, after casting an early vote in Seoul's Mapo district that morning, said, "Power does not come from the barrel of a gun but from the ballot box. If you vote, we win." National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and Prime Minister Kim Min-seok also each participated in early voting. Ha Jung-woo, the Democratic Party candidate in the Busan Buk-gap by-election, drew attention by appearing at the polling station together with Jun Jae-soo, the Busan mayoral candidate who is the region's former representative. Independent candidate Han Dong-hoon came with his wife, attorney Jin Eun-jung, but voted alone. Jin plans to vote on the main election day.
For the PPP, floor leader Song Eon-seok plans to cast an early vote in Daegu on the morning of the 30th. However, party leader Jang Dong-hyuk will participate in the main vote on the 3rd of next month instead of early voting. Some within conservative circles have raised the possibility of election fraud in early voting, citing that election management is less rigorous compared to the main vote. Hwang Kyo-ahn, a prominent election fraud theorist and candidate of the Freedom and Innovation Party running in the Pyeongtaek-eul re-election in Gyeonggi, said, "Every time we focused on early voting, the right suffered a crushing defeat," adding, "There is a reason it has to be this way, so please vote on June 3 (instead of early voting)."
Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee also completed early voting at the Hannam-dong Community Center in Seoul's Yongsan district that day. It is highly unusual for Chairman Lee's voting to be captured. Chairman Lee shook hands with an on-site official as he received his ballot.
