Direction of voting rights reformBy Jiang Zung-shiang 江榮祥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. 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. 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. 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.
