Taiwan's November 28 nine-in-one elections have officially got under way, and if three referendums are tied to the vote as well, the count could drag on until the early hours of the morning — a strain on election workers and on the parties waiting for results.

• The Central Election Commission has formally announced the elections, with candidate registration opening on August 31. Tens of thousands of local public offices will be filled nationwide.
• The scale is enormous: nearly 19,000 polling stations, more than 300,000 election workers mobilised, and roughly 19.65 million voters.
• First-time voters number about 600,000, including some 100,000 new voters aged 18 who are eligible to vote in referendums. The youth vote has become a variable.
• If the three referendums passed by the Legislative Yuan are all tied to the elections, counting could run until one or two in the morning. The last time only one referendum was attached, counting finished shortly after 11 p.m.
• Because official documents arrived too late, the Central Election Commission has postponed the committee meeting reviewing the referendum proposals from August 21 to August 28, so how many will ultimately be approved remains undecided.

Outlook: Over the coming week, attention turns to the Central Election Commission's August 28 review, which will determine whether the referendums really are held alongside the elections and how long the count will drag on.