Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections have attracted the attention of the international community, and Taiwan’s voting procedure has generated much discussion and debate.
On an election day, voters first have their ID cards checked by staff upon arrival at the polling station, followed by voters putting a stamp or fingerprint on the name list. Voters then receive the ballots and mark whom they wish to vote for using the tools prepared by the election commission. Voters then fold the ballots in half and deposit them into ballot boxes according to the paper’s colors.
After polling, staff members manually count the ballots one by one, read the vote out loud and display it to the attending witnesses. After the counting at stations is completed, managers compile a written report of the results and post it on the bulletin board outside the station and then designate a courier to deliver the station results to the township electoral operation centers, so the results can be entered into a centralized computing system.
The Counting and Information Center for Election provides real-time election results. The public can check up-to-date polling counts through the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) Web site on election day.
While some have praised Taiwan’s voting system as transparent and prudent, some have called it obsolete for not incorporating electronic voting, postal voting and prepoll voting.
In face of China’s nefarious ploys to interfere in Taiwan’s elections, the current system — including in-person voting, paper ballots and manual counting — can prevent China’s hacking or electronic rigging.
Nevertheless, the linking between place of residence and voting rights have inconvenienced people and prevented those working or studying abroad, polling station staff and on-duty security officers from exercising their voting rights, while prisoners are also deprived of their rights.
According to the demographic breakdown released by the CEC, it is apparent that an aged society and low birthrate are the underlying reasons for generational conflicts. For young people working or studying away from their registered residence, the distance, the amount of traffic and time to travel discourage them from voting. On the other hand, retired elderly living in their registered residence have a higher turnout rate than young people. If the government wishes to introduce prepoll voting, postal voting or electronic voting, to ensure privacy and information security, it should wait until the technology matures and society reaches a consensus on the issue. To protect the voting rights of every citizen, conducting “nonresidence voting” by allowing people to vote near one’s place of study or work is a feasible direction for reform.
Jiang Zung-shiang is a lawyer. He holds a master’s degree in law from National Defense University.
Translated by Rita Wang
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
The victory of Vice President William Lai (賴清德) in January’s presidential election raised questions about the future of China’s unification strategy toward Taiwan. A decade ago, the assumption in Bejing had been that deepening economic ties with Taiwan would bring about a political accommodation eventually leading to political integration. Not only has this not happened, but it hastened the opposite. Taiwanese are more concerned with safeguarding their political independence than they have ever been. China’s preferred party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has not won a presidential election since 2012. Clearly, Beijing’s strategy is not working. Polling conducted by the Institute of European