Will Taiwan Be Able to Lower Its Voting Age From One of the World’s Highest?

You still need to give a copy of the contract.

Much easier thant the HR office coming into your home to take pictures of bedroom, bathroom and usually living room haha.

It is so much easier for a foreigner compared toa local. But obvious it’s because we dont have a real ID and the rights to go along with it. not sure if they are following the law, but NIA tells me the same each time I change address: 100nt, tell us your new address. sometimes they ask for a peice of mail, but rarely.

@Taiwan_Luthiers I would argue it doesnt work that well. for starters, they didn’t vote 10 centuries ago :wink: We do now and it is a royal pain in the ass. along with all the other obvious differences between modern day Taiwan and china 1000 years ago.

The problem for Taiwanese is you must show the property tax receipt in order to register a HR. Only the landlord will have that document. Rental contract don’t mean didilly squat to them.

This effectively disenfranches renters.

What a terrible system.

Guy

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I think Marco was talking about foreigners?

either way the system does not work well…

Yea it kinda does, or at least force him to travel to some weird location if their parents own properties in weird places. I think it’s just an old system where in the old days only land owners could vote.

I do not know how many Taiwanese are disenfranchised in this way, and whether or not they will launch a constitutional challenge.

not even weird places. just far. if an election was to be slanted towards a certain sect like trying to avoid young people voting it can easily be held on an inconvenient day when said people are working to avoid some turnout.

Not only should the HR system be completely abolished and replaced with a logical residency system, national election should be made a national holiday in my opinion. and in places like taiwan with way too much money being thrown into the ditch, train and bus services should be free for said situations. that would also send a message to the world whilst allowing the Taiwan government to burn up some extra project money they cant seem to ever get rid of logically.

So back to the topic of this thread.

Here’s some recent polling. It seems the enfranchised oldsters are not especially keen to allow youngsters in Taiwan to have the same electoral rights, despite all political parties publicly supporting this change in the legislature.

Remember it still needs to pass in a referendum to be held on election day in November. Will it pass?

Guy

C Donovan Smith writing at Taiwan News argues passionately in favour of saying “yes” in the upcoming referendum scheduled on November 26—and also explains why it will almost certainly fall short of the required threshold.

Guy

No one I’ve read seems optimistic about this referendum passing.

Guy

Hopefully yes, move it to 18.

Hmmm…most of my friend’s around 18 year old kids don’t have a clue about anything. Sorry, the wife and I were just discussing one in college that did not even know how to use a lighter to start a gas stove. You see…her parents did everything for her so she never ever even saw her mother turn on their kitchen stove.

What is your point with this?

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There are heaps of folks over 20 who look utterly clueless to me. This does not mean they are or should be disenfranchised.

For the 18 and up crowd, if they are old enough to do military service, they should be eligible to vote should they wish to do so.

Guy

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Old enough to die for the country, then old enough to vote for who runs the country sending them to die. Just a matter of courtesy, right?

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why not change it to only people who show their willingness to serve the needs of the many (e.g through completing military service ) will be allowed to vote?
that way solve several problems in one go:

  1. increase the number of people serving in the army (so they can get their right to vote)
  2. eliminate people without skin in the game from taking decisions on our behalf.
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that is so silly. You are linking the right to vote, which has to be universal, to some type of requirements besides the citizenship.

Sounds like the electoral laws of late XIX-early XX century, where only males paying a certain amount of taxes or landowners could vote (or polling tax like in southern US states to keep african-american not to vote).

No thanks

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well, since voting in Taiwan is 100% a theoretical exercise for me as a foreigner, why not entertain this theory?
i think that limiting voting to those who are willing to serve the public (military or civil service ) has merit.
Like you said, the common courtesy is to let those willing to die for the country the right to vote for the country’s future. I say something similar, dont allow those not willing to die for the country, decide if we go to war.

Is this satire?

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Basically I feel 18 is too young to vote. I think 21 is better as gives a few more years of experiences in life and society.

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