Consider US, Japan absentee voting solutions: TPPLOCAL ELECTIONS: Japan created exclusive voting stations for COVID-19 cases, and South Korea allotted special voting hours for their polls, the TPP caucus saidBy Huang Ching-hsuan and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucus yesterday urged the Central Election Committee (CEC) to consult voting regulations in the US, Japan and South Korea to create a way for people infected with COVID-19 to vote in local elections on Nov. 26. A proposed amendment to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to allow absentee voting was submitted to the legislature more than two years ago, but the CEC did not propose its own version, he added. However, no effort was made to pass the amendment or establish the absentee voting system in time for the local elections, Chiu said. The CEC said in October last year that absentee voting would not be allowed in the referendum held in December last year, as “regulations and complementary measures were not in place,” Jang added. As a “technology island” and a democratic model in East Asia, Taiwan should prioritize implementing an absentee voting system, he said.
