Will Taiwan Be Able to Lower Its Voting Age From One of the World’s Highest?
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To be honest, the biggest issue with voting are the household registration issues. If the DPP really wants to try and beat the kmt in the future and also give China a big fuck you while attempting to not be so obvious, disposing of the HR system would be far more efficient than lowering voting age a couple years…especially given the maturity level of the current culture.
At the same time, I feel if a person pays income tax, they should be able to vote. Can take that from either end of the argument, point remains.
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what are the household issues ? im not familiar with them.
I don’t think removing the household registration system will solve anything but its inefficiencies need to be fixed. I think punishing landlords for failing to allow people to move their registration will help.
Also allowing people to vote at an office outside their district will also help improve voter turnout.
As well as educating youth about Taiwan’s democratic processes.
But I also support lowering the voting age to 18
I’m a big supporter of compulsory voting but I can’t get my Taiwanese husband to vote because he thinks ‘it doesn’t matter and doesn’t affect me’ i would assume this mentality is not uncommon here.
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Talk to him about the shifting red line in China. When you never know what will piss off the party next and can get unwittingly trapped.
Also. Voter turnout is high compared to most democracies.
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You can only vote where you are registered. The issues go deep very fast in Taiwan. but basically, even with new laws saying landlords must allow tenants to register if they want, this does not remotely reflect reality. Now, there may be those that say over time this is changing, and may not be an issue. the first I agree is true. However the second part, not so.kuch. that goes way into the weeds of how Taiwan works in reality vs on paper. so, as not to distract from this thread let’s just saythat will tip the fuckery that was the Taiwan norm from possible to now a system that will no doubt see lots of economic downturn due to oversights and may see some recession like issues decades down the line. On that side alone, there are valid pros and cons.
They already can punish. as mentioned above, although ethically right it is realistically a friggen nightmare!
Dumping the household registration would do a few things. but most easily.make the ID card like the ARC or APRC in the sense you just change your address and there is no bullshit involved like with the HR situation. as far as voting and all that unnecessarily stupid shit. It would also lead, perhaps, a small path of separation from China with nationality and heritage type things. All would be an extra step towards independence without ever saying so, which fits the DPP model nearly perfectly.
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Constantly under threat, yet naive enough not to worry, really is the goldilocks zone for voter turnout. it seems.
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Unfortunately it is something I can relate too, since this hukou system is the same we have in Italy.
Since you can vote and receive welfare services only in the town you are registered as resident, many students can’t vote or enjoy any welfare assistnce by local governments where they study since they r still registered in their hometowns. In order to register in a new town, you either need to own a place or rent legally or have a host agreement. And you have actually inspectors checking if you actually live there or just scamming.
Health assistance is different, service is still assured but for some service an out-of-region surcharge is applied.
We even keep hukous when foreign resident, I’m still registered as foreign resident of Milan!
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My country also has the same system for voting, but i dont see it as such a major issue in Taiwan. There is good transportation infrastructure and going home to vote is easily manageable.
As for the other points of the system (welfare, education etc.) i agree they should register you where you actually live, even if its a rental.
I like the household registration system actually. Australia has no national registration of anything, which has its inconveniences. The closest would be the electoral roll however this is only used for voting and there are a few (very few) non-citizens on the electoral roll. Some citizens also do not register on the electoral roll so it is incomplete. Proving your identity is very difficult in Australia, if you do not have a drivers licence or passport.
Proving your citizenship can also be difficult, this caused problems for people associated with Papua New Guinea a few years ago. An old colleague of mine had to find papers from decades ago regarding her connection with Papua New Guinea to prove she was a citizen. I had issues with this as my dads birth certificate uses his dutch name but on my birth certificate it has my dads English name. I used my mum’s birth certificate in the end as it was easier to prove citizenship by descent.
The household registration system avoids all the issues above.
I like the idea of national ID cards and a national register of citizens. I think the ID cards for foreigners and citizens should be combined and changing your address simplified so that the efficiencies of a centralised system are maintained but the discriminatory aspects end. I also think there need to be protections in place for peoples privacy
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Believe me, it is an issue in Taiwan. It’s a pain in the a&& for young people to travel out of Taipei back to their “family home” when elections roll around.
The system as it stands basically makes it more difficult for renters to vote. It sucks.
Guy
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Of the commonwealth tradition countries I like the ease and flexibility to change the particulars, but not having a unified national ID system relying on collateral IDs like driving licences/passport is very
Inconvenient indeed.
The best system I came across is actually the HK ID card. All is managed by the Immigration Dept, even for permanent residents (which in HK are basically the citizens, not digressing on that, but it’s a very interesting topic). As you are born in or arrived to HK, you are given a HK ID no, and that won’t change for your entire life, even if you become PR or naturalise or emigrate and then re-immigrate. The card itself has no expiration date, doesn’t carry though any resident address (thence the need of external proof of address like utilities, bank statements, correspondence from gov) and has notations to show the status of the holder, which are not embedded in the ID no (you have different codes to see if you are born in HK or abroad, if you are ethnic Chinese, if you have Permanent residence/right of abode/right to land, if you changed your name).
It is a very good system, which doesn’t allow outright discrimination since the numbers are all equal either for non-permanent and permanent residents. You need to actually see the card to tell the difference. Then acts also as NHI card, since all HK residents from the time of grant of the card are eligible to public health service. Acts also as digital citizen certificate since it has a IC chip (you only really use it to verify your ID with the actual digital citizen certificate app to authenticate via qr code to any gov service and many private companies too, have to admit works very very well).
Taiwan should implement something similar with the new generation of ID cards and unify the citizen/A(P)RC systems to uniform for real the numbers, not this bogus “unified like national ID numbering system” which still leads to the very same issues… Eliminate NHI card and embed it into the ID card, and for the love of God, update that joke of the driving licences here… Pieces of paper… Make it a real IC card like Europe or Japan which also fit well all wallets!
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Yea, HR system sucks. I have to take a trip to Taichung to vote because that happens to be where my HR is. They should allow people to vote by mail if they are unable to travel. Election day bus/train tickets are hard to come by because everyone has to travel to vote.
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I think national security issues make this alternative unlikely to be adopted soon.
Just let people vote where, you know, they actually live! 
Guy
Or accept multiple photo IDs. I have three government issued photo IDs here and I’m just on an ARC (also have NHI and motorcycle license)
well, at least they don’t require an electoral card like we do in Italy, which has no picture, just your name, surname, residence address and registered electoral section where you can vote. Without that you can’t vote, or you need to apply the same day for an emergency electoral certificate at the town government…
After each time you vote, they put a stamp, when you run out of space for the stamps, you need to get a new one at the town government, and you need to apply for that in person. And the card is not a card, is a bloody huge booklet-type of thing made of thick paper, no plastic reinforcements. We are an advanced nation though ehi!
That is not true. DPP supporters are far more inclined to travel back to where their HR is to vote than KMT supporters so they would never change this. Also, disposing of the HR system would open the floodgate for postal voting or absentee ballot which is suicide.
Compulsory voting is completely asinine. Voter turnout is very high in Taiwan already.
No, not really. We can speculate all day long, but overall dpp has a younger audience with more passion. This may increase due to the Chinese KMt and CCP bullshit over the next few elections. CKMT is more so an older generation that has done well financially with their “style” and travelling to vote is probably less of an issue. This doesnt at alltouch on the fact of families forcing votes (obviously non sheep can just lie), vote buying etc. which both sides are very guilty of.
What I was saying, which is very true, is that household registration system drastically hinders voting because of how retarded the entire system works. I am assuming you know what it means in reality for rental systems, business structures, cultural norms etc and why all those tie into why being held hostage to a HR system for voting is beyond problematic. For everyone, regardless of party affiliation. Secondly, creates one more degree of separation from the “Chinese national” type problem.
Dumping the HR system does not, by proxy mean voting by mail. It would be dangerous to frame the deletion of the Houkou system with voting by mail. Very bad idea.
getting rid of this whole system is replaced with a residency system, which is FAR less limiting and oppressive. Just think about the ARC system. you go give them your address and you’re essentially done. this avoids family issues, landlord issues, business problems and so on. It would be easy, efficient and insanely uncomplicated. it just makes too much sense for the government to want to do it…
It’s mainly because the system probably been around since the 10th century… so if it works, why dump it…