TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Central Election Commission Chair You Ying-lung (游盈隆) warned Thursday that holding six concurrent referendums alongside November's local elections could significantly delay vote counting.
During a meeting of the legislature's Internal Administration Committee, DPP Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城) asked You how the CEC would manage six referendums, per Tai Sounds. Lee noted that You had previously warned that even three referendum questions would place a heavy burden on the commission.
You said the commission had no choice but to fulfill its legal responsibilities despite the challenge. He pointed out that adding the referendum on lowering the voting age to 18 to the 2022 local elections delayed vote counting until about 11:48 p.m.
You explained that four concurrent referendums could push the count to between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. the following day.
KMT Legislative Caucus Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) responded that the opposition was open to discussing measures to facilitate the referendums, per Liberty Times. KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Friday that the party could withdraw some referendum proposals after considering the time and costs involved, per ETtoday.
The KMT has also proposed combining multiple referendum questions onto a single ballot to reduce the burden on election workers, per PTS. KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-pao (賴士葆) explained that voters in November would receive separate ballots for village chief, township or city representative, county magistrate or mayor, and referendums.
DPP caucus official Fan Yun (范雲) opposed the proposal, arguing that referendum questions should not be combined onto a single ballot. She urged You to "understand how voting works in democratic countries."
The commission also opposed the proposal, saying Taiwan's manually counted voting system differs significantly from electronic vote-counting systems used in countries such as the US, per Liberty Times. Lai previously cited the US as a possible model for the approach, per SETN.
The commission said combining referendum questions onto a single ballot would require changes to rules governing valid and invalid ballots and could deprive voters of the choice of whether to participate in individual referendums. It also argued the proposal would do little to shorten voting time while potentially increasing the number of invalid ballots.
The commission added that the proposal would complicate vote counting and oversight, leave insufficient time to prepare new procedures, and increase the burden of preserving ballots in the event of referendum-related litigation.
