The finalization of the specifications for the referendum ballots on Thursday was a result of compromise between the Cabinet and the Central Election Commission (CEC). The two bodies had locked horns about the details included in and the format of the ballots.
According to the finalized plan announced on Thursday, voters will be offered three separate ballots when they enter their assigned polling locations with their identification cards on March 20, when the nation's first national referendum will be held alongside the presidential election.
After voters have been cleared as eligible, they will be given three separate ballots designed in three different colors: one for the presidential election and the others for the two "defensive referendum" questions.
According to the plan, votes will be cast in polling booths colored to match the color of the relevant ballot. The votes will be separately tallied by election workers.
The Cabinet originally hoped to print the two referendum questions on two separate ballots. Later on it said that it preferred to have the two questions on one single ballot.
For the convenience of illiterate voters, the Cabinet had also suggested that the symbols "O" and "X" be included on the two referendum questions in addition to columns marked "agree" and "disagree."
The CEC, however, felt that the printing of two referendum questions on a single ballot would be a nuisance to election staff when tallying the ballots. The CEC, noting that the symbols "O" and "X" also carry undertones of "right" and "wrong," said that the inclusion of such symbols might affect the fairness of the vote.
The final format of the ballots was decided after a heated discussion during Thursday's meeting between members of the CEC and the Cabinet.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"Our thinking was that this approach [using three separate ballots] would minimize the trouble of tallying ballots and solve the problem of deciding whether a ballot should considered valid if the voter decides to answer just one of the two referendum questions," Lin said.
Expressing hope that all voters would exercise their right to direct democracy, Lin stressed that voters' individual rights would be respected by giving them a choice of picking up one, two or all three ballots.
Lin said that ballots must be cast and that they could not be taken out of the voting stations once they have been picked up.
Voters who remove ballots from the polling stations will be punished for violating the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (
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