9,619,697 ‘yes’ votes required to lower voting age

Taiwan will be heading to the polls on Saturday to vote in the local elections. In addition, a constitutional referendum to lower the voting age to 18 will be held. As a constitutional referendum, the threshold for passing is quite high, with more than 50% of the electorate required to vote in favor of lowering the voting age to pass. That means more than 9.6 million "yes" votes will be needed. To drum up support for the referendum, the DPP has released a promotional video urging people to vote. Ahead of the referendum on Saturday, the DPP is urging people to go to the polls with a video telling the story of a father and son. The son reads out a note that says “You’re turning 18 tomorrow! What would you like as a present?” The DPP hopes the video will encourage more people to vote in favor of a constitutional referendum to lower the voting age to 18. The referendum has a very high threshold to pass, requiring at least 50% of all of Taiwan’s more than 19.23 million eligible voters to vote in favor. According to the Central Election Commission, that’s 9,619,697 “yes” votes, for the referendum to pass—no small feat. Kuo Kuo-wen DPP secretary-general The threshold is extremely high. We know that surpassing the 8.17 million votes that President Tsai Ing-wen won in her reelection will be difficult. Our concept is to promote a value. So no matter what, we will continue to actively encourage voters to take part in this constitutional referendum. Over in the mayor and commissioner elections on Saturday, there will be fewer voters than in 2018. Back then, there were about 19.1 million voters. This time around, there’ll be just over 18.96 million, a drop of 130,000 people. The main reason for the fall is the postponement of Chiayi’s mayoral election after the death of a candidate. As the election draws closer, candidates of all parties are out at full force to capture as many votes as they can.