Taiwanese Voters From Overseas Vote in Midterm Election and Referendums

To some Taiwanese voters living overseas, distance is not a barrier to voting. As midterm elections in Taiwan is happening tomorrow, Taiwanese living in New York are traveling all the way back to the country to cast their ballots in Saturday’s election.

Absentee voting is currently not available in Taiwan even though there are almost two million overseas Taiwanese people around the world. While a lot of them are unable to participate in the coming election due to their work or school schedules, some of the overseas Taiwanese voters in New York City are taking leaves and spending the money needed in order to exercising their right to vote.

“No matter what the election result is, it doesn’t affect my decision to vote. It’s important to voice your opinions, even if there are not a lot of people who agree with you,” said Tian-liang Huang, 32.

A software engineer in New York, he has shifted his days off from lunar new year in February, a time when people get together with their family, to November so that he can fly back to Taiwan for the election.

In the so-called nine-in-one election on November 24, candidates from the two largest parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), are competing the seats of mayors, councilors and seven other local positions. Smaller parties such as the New Power Party have also joined the council races. It is the first nationwide election after President Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, took the office in 2016.

“The results will have some implications for the tenor of cross-Strait relations going forward,” said Kharis Templeman, a Stanford University scholar on democracy and elections in Taiwan. “Beijing, of course, would like to see the DPP flounder, the KMT rebound, and the New Power Party fall flat on its face.”

This year, Taiwanese voters are not only electing their local government leaders but also voting on a total of 10 referendums, including five about same-sex marriage and LGBTQ education, four on environmental protection and energy issues, and one asking whether Taiwan should compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics under the name of Taiwan.

LGBT ballot measures highly contested

The most hotly-debated referendums are the ones on marriage equality, LGBTQ education and the name change of national team. They are also what draw some overseas Taiwanese voters back to the country.

When the Constitutional Court in Taiwan ruled last year that it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, it gave the legislature two years to amend the laws before the decision automatically goes into effect. However, the opponents of same-sex marriage have stepped up their efforts as well. By this October, conservative groups in Taiwan—consisting predominantly of local Christian communities—have added three referendums to the ballot: one that would define marriage as a union of man and woman, another that would create a different set of laws for same-sex couples, which advocates said would be discriminatory, and one that would ban primary schools and junior high schools from teaching students about gender equality, LGBTQ and sex education.

“It’s absurd that at schools kids are taught where to seek help when facing domestic violence, but they are never taught how to use condoms,” said Jessy Yang, 33, who said gender equality education and same-sex marriage were the ones she cared about the most.

In the two months that she had interned at a halfway center that helps kids in dysfunctional families in Taiwan, Yang knew of two middle-school students who had abortions because they did not learn about safe sex. She is now a graduate student studying real estate in Columbia University and will fly back to Taiwan to vote during Thanksgiving break.

Overseas residents also provided funding for the ballot initiatives. A few weeks ago, groups of Taiwanese and American supporters gathered at The Stonewall Inn, the iconic LGBTQ bar in New York, to fundraise for the marriage-equality referendum in Taiwan. Wen Liu, host of the event and also a University at Albany professor, said part of the money would help pay for those going back to their registered cities or counties to vote.

Those who are not able to travel back were able to sign a petition supporting same-sex marriage and gender equality education in Taiwan. It has been signed by more than 800 overseas Taiwanese, mostly scholars and students studying abroad.

Fang-Yu Chen, one of the initiators of the petition, said marriage-equality organizations have very few resources and funding compared to the anti-LGBTQ groups. The petition could help persuade more people to vote yes on same-sex marriage and gender equality education when the petitioners cannot physically be in Taiwan to vote.

“One of the biggest difficulties faced by marriage-equality movement is that most of the people in power now—those who make decisions—are conservative because they have never received gender equality education in school,” said Chen. A Ph.D. candidate studying political science at Michigan State University, Chen is a long-time columnist writing for several Taiwanese news outlets.

Taiwan in the Olympics

Another issue that has been in the spotlight is Proposition 13. Initiated by 1968 Olympic medalist Chi Cheng, the referendum asks whether the national sports team should apply to compete as team “Taiwan” in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics instead of “Chinese Taipei,” the name that has been used by Taiwan sports team since 1981.

The Taiwan government is now operating under the name of Republic of China, a regime that moved to the island in 1949 after losing to the Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War. There have been debates over the legitimacy of the Republic of China, and the international status of the government has remained uncertain. “Chinese Taipei” is the name Taiwan’s government adopted after signing the Lausanne Agreement with International Olympic Committee in 1981.

When the referendum was first introduced, there were concerns that it would jeopardize Taiwanese athletes’ eligibility in the Olympics because the Lausanne Agreement did not allow teams to change names without permission from the International Olympic Committee. However, the referendum will only ask to “request” to change the national team’s official name to Taiwan. If the request is denied, the team will continue using Chinese Taipei.

This led some voters in Taiwan to question whether the proposal is a waste of time, and that nothing would be achieved even if it passes.

“There are a lot of things that we may not be able to change eventually, but we still have to do it,” said Joshua Wang, 30. Now living in New York, Wang said he is desperate to vote, but he is not allowed to register since he’s been away from Taiwan for five years.

The upcoming election is not only a chance to decide new political leaders, but also an indicator of people’s stance on human rights issues and an evaluation of current government’s policies.

“Voting is expressing your opinions,” said Yang. “And I have affection for Taiwan. When you have affection for something, you’ll hope that it’s moving towards a good place—and then you’ll speak up, you’ll voice your opinions.”

(Feature photo of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s campaign headquarters in 2014 by MiNe on Wikicommons, CC BY 2.0)