The government is open to discussions about absentee voting in national elections and referendums, but not voting from overseas, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told a plenary session at the legislature in Taipei on Tuesday. Cho expressed concern that allowing voting from overseas would expose elections to “the potential for manipulation by hostile regimes.”
Cho’s concerns are not new. Then-premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and then-minister of the interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) on March 14 last year said that while the government could consider absentee voting within Taiwan for referendums, the measure could not be applied to overseas voting, or even for presidential elections.
For absentee voting to become a reality, election security would need to be improved, and planning and research would be required to ensure that votes are kept confidential and election results are accurate and fair, Chen said.
It would not be suitable for regular elections, but could be used for referendums, Lin said.
Concerns about election fraud and manipulation among top officials are understandable, given the threat posed by China, but there might be a way to safely allow absentee voting from Taiwan’s representative offices overseas.
At the very least, allowing Taiwanese to cast their ballots from anywhere within the country is a measure that is long overdue. The number of Taiwanese who migrate to the country’s large municipalities from towns and rural areas is significant. Requiring them to travel during elections often excludes people from the voting process, as many are unable to take leave from work or cannot afford to travel.
Cho said that domestic transfer voting — absentee voting from a location in Taiwan that is not for the voter’s registered address — could initially be tested in referendums on specific issues, but allowing it for elections for public office would be significantly more complex and face “great difficulties.”
However, Cho did not explain how something as simple as accepting a voter’s ballot from a different location within Taiwan could be so difficult.
Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) told lawmakers that the executive branch had been reviewing absentee voting for some time, but said that it would be “extremely serious” if any policy affected the stability of electoral work. Lee also did not explain how absentee voting could be destabilizing.
Perhaps their concerns are similar to those expressed by CTBC Business School Department of Business and Economic Law researcher Hsu Hui-feng (許惠峰), who in an editorial (“Absentee ballot’s cons outweigh its benefits,” March 21, 2024, page 8) outlined three problems that would likely challenge the introduction of absentee voting:
He said that the CEC would be unable to verify voter identities in a mail-in system, while vote buying remains a problem; there would be uncertainty over whether the CEC would safely receive mail-in votes; and the secrecy of ballots cast remotely could not be guaranteed.
However, mail-in voting is unnecessary. There are polling across the country, so people not in their electoral district could simply go to the nearest polling station.
Even overseas voting could be handled without a mail system. Despite Taiwan having formal diplomatic relations with only 12 countries, it has representative offices in another 60. They could provide secure polling stations and, as they have secure links with Taiwan, ballots could be mailed to the CEC without concern.
Although overseas voting is unlikely in the near future, absentee voting within Taiwan — including in presidential elections — is feasible and should be seriously considered to better protect the rights of voters.
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