Putting all proposed referendums on one ballot, as some opposition lawmakers have proposed, could severely affect the local elections in November, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said yesterday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP)-controlled Legislative Yuan is expected to vote to pass the proposal tomorrow.
With fewer than 100 days remaining before the Nov. 28 elections, You told reporters at a news conference in Taipei that although he was reluctant to say that he hoped the legislature would withdraw the proposal, deep down he strongly hoped it would.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao’s (賴士葆) argument that the US has long used consolidated ballots for referendums was based on a faulty premise, You said.
The US does not have a single nationwide practice for referendum ballots, and each state has its own referendum rules, ballot design and election procedures, which can vary substantially by locality.
Implementing the opposition’s proposal would require changing the entire election-administration system, with corresponding changes to equipment and operating procedures, You said.
Printing all proposed referendums on one ballot would not decrease the number of initiatives or the time needed to vote or count votes, because results still have to be tallied question by question, he said.
Changing Article 21 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) without changing other laws would create a legal mandate that cannot be implemented, he said.
The cause of problems in the 2018 local elections was that voters had to consider 10 referendum questions, which led to long lines and delayed vote counts; it was not simply due to ballot collection, You said.
It is not clear what problem consolidated ballots are supposed to solve, he said.
He said that since Aug. 4 he had visited the legislature’s three party caucuses to warn them against the proposal.
The CEC outlined 11 problems raised by the proposal.
Among the issues, voting and vote-counting procedures in US states differ from those in Taiwan, making a direct comparison or adoption difficult, it said.
The proposal would not amend the regulations necessary to implement the changes, and a consolidated ballot would not reduce the amount of time voters need to mark their ballots and could increase invalid ballots due to ink transfer or overlapping marks, it said.
Changing the ballot design so close to the elections would not give the CEC enough time to adapt voting aids for people with visual impairments, and the vote-counting process could exceed the capacity of poll workers, who must call out and count the ballots one by one and decipher voters’ marks, it said.
In addition, the consolidated ballot bill in its present form would interfere with numerous essential electoral tasks, including determining valid and invalid votes, ballot sealing and recounts, it said.
The CEC does not have enough time to implement the lawmakers’ proposal in a manner that ensures fairness, it added.
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