![Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok reacts with surprise after a citizen confronts him at an early voting station in Dongtan, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on May 29, asking why he was not waiting in line. [Yonhap News TV YouTube]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/02/news-p.v1.20260602.5279fa54a3a34ff1b702cc62a9069898_P1.jpg)
Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok has again denied allegations that he cut in line during early voting ahead of the June 3 local elections. He compared the accusation to a recent controversy in which comedian Cho Se-ho was criticized for skipping a wedding and said he did not know the couple. "This is even more absurd than when Cho Se-ho was asked why he didn't attend a wedding and said, 'How was I supposed to go when I don't even know them?'" Lee said.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Lee said it takes only a single click to spread a lie but thousands of times more effort to correct one. "That is precisely why smear campaigns do not disappear in the age of social media — the playing field is fundamentally uneven," he wrote.
He acknowledged that maliciously edited videos had collectively racked up 24 million views, making a full correction "virtually impossible in practice," but said he was still obligated to try his best.
Returning to the wedding analogy, Lee denied the allegations directly. "'How can you stand in a line that doesn't exist?' — that is all I can say," he wrote.
Lee said the facts were straightforward. "The Dongtan 9-dong early voting station is the same place I voted at during the presidential election, and it is a community center I visit regularly, so I know it well," he said.
He added that he had visited during a quiet period when almost no one else was voting, with five of the six early voting machines sitting idle. "There was simply no situation in which a line could have existed," he said.
Lee criticized those who spread the footage, saying they had deliberately added misleading subtitles on the first day of voting to construct a "queue-jumping" narrative. "Their goal is short and clear — the moment a lie spreads, the malicious intent has already been achieved," he said.
He urged citizens to counter smear campaigns by going to the polls armed with accurate information, saying that was the only way to deny such tactics any foothold.
The controversy began May 29 at an early voting station in Dongtan, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, when a video spread online showing a citizen confronting Lee and asking why he was not standing in line.
The clip fueled speculation online that Lee had ignored a waiting queue, but it later emerged that there had been no line at all — for either in-district or out-of-district voters — and that the citizen had misread the situation.
yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com
