The Taiwan Citizen Union and several students’ associations from universities nationwide yesterday urged young people to vote in the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections, and said they were launching a crowdfunding campaign to help fund bus tickets for those wanting to return home to cast their ballots.
“There is actually an economic threshold to voting, as many students are unable to afford to go home to cast their ballot,” said Fan Yun (范雲), a National Taiwan University sociology professor and president of the Taiwan Citizen Union.
“It is important to tackle the disparity between the rich and the poor in terms of their ability to vote,” she said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Hsu Wei-ting (許韋婷), a youth organizer with the union, said a train trip from Taipei to Greater Kaohsiung costs NT$843, while a student with a minimum-wage job makes just NT$920 a day.
The group plans to launch a fundraising campaign on Internet crowdfunding platform FlyingV, to raise NT$150,000 to fund a total of 22 bus routes on election day.
National Taiwan University Student Association president Sandy Wang (王日暄) backed the plan, saying that students should take responsibility in initiating social change.
The association had already launched a similar campaign to arrange bus trips from the school to locations across the country on voting day, providing discounted tickets to students, Wang said.
The union also encouraged students to carpool and share expenses for their trip by using Brazilian Internet platform Tripda.
Tripda Taiwan chief executive Crane Wang (王鶴穆) said the company supports youth engagement in social change regardless of political affiliation, adding that the firm intends to devote an online campaign to encourage its users to carpool on voting day and to vote.
The organizers also called on the government to formulate plans for absentee voting to ensure young people pursuing their studies far from home have an opportunity to vote. By law, people can only vote where their households are registered.
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