by Olivia Wang

Referendums are activities that people are only exposed to when they grow up, so minors generally have little opportunity to pay attention to or learn about referendums. This semester, we are honored to invite Mr. Zheng, a professional environmentalist, to share his information with us, and our main study and research topic is “Preserving Algae Reefs”. So in the next article, I will share what I think are two external factors about the referendum result from the perspective of a minor, and my thoughts on this referendum.

There are four cases in this 2021 referendum. They are “Restart Nuclear IV, Anti-Lay Pig, Referendum Tie General Election, and Preserve Algae Reef”. According to the statistics of the Central Election Commission, the four referendums on December 18, 2021 failed to pass because there were more disapproval votes than yes votes, and the yes votes did not reach the threshold. As for the factors that all disagree with, I think in addition to public opinion, external factors are actually a major focus. On December 18, the referendum was supposed to be the protagonist of the day, but it was stripped of its edge because of an explosive entertainment news. The news page was instantly covered by entertainment news, resulting in a decrease in exposure and a distraction of the public. I think that may be one of the reasons for the drop in turnout.

Second, I think that because the referendum will not affect people's lives in a timely manner, or simply do not understand the impact the referendum will have on their lives, people's participation and enthusiasm for the referendum are not high. In this regard, we should take some actions, because it is the same as what was mentioned in the previous articles. The referendum, like environmental protection and environmental issues, will directly affect the future appearance of the world, and will be affected. Not only us, but future generations of humanity will also be affected. Everyone should know exactly how the outcome of the referendum will affect them, including minors. Even if they cannot express their opinions now, it does not mean that the referendum has nothing to do with them. They should still know what issues our society is facing now, and no matter what the outcome is, how these issues will affect us life.

Finally, my thoughts on this referendum are that for the issue of “cherishing algal reefs”, I think it is a pity that the vote did not pass. Algal reefs have a history of 7,600 years and are very rich in ecology. It has a very high research value in itself. I think it is a pity to build a natural gas terminal in such a rare area. I think many people may not really understand the impact behind each referendum, and we There is a price to be paid, so I hope that people can have more opportunities to understand the “referendum” and think more fully about the impact of these issues.

In this article, we address external factors that may have contributed to lower turnout than expected, people's participation and enthusiasm for the referendum, and my thoughts on the outcome of this referendum. The conclusion of this article is that people need to understand everything more completely in order not to make regrettable decisions. The above is what a middle school student thought about the referendum. I hope this article will help you to look at the referendum from another perspective.

by Olivia Wang

公投是當人們長大成人以後才會接觸到的活動，所以未成年人普遍很少有機會去關注或了解公投。這學期我們有幸邀請到鄭老師這位專業環保人士來與我們分享訊息，而我們主要學習及研究的議題便是其中的「珍愛藻礁」。所以接下來的文章我將會以一個未成年者的角度去分享我所認為的關於公投結果的兩個外在因素，和針對此次公投我的感想。

此次2021公投案共有四案，它們分別為「重啟核四、反萊豬、公投綁大選、珍愛藻礁」。根據中選會的統計，2021年12月18日的4個公投案，都因為不同意票多於同意票，加上同意票未達門檻而沒能通過。而全部都不同意的因素，我認為除了民意，外在因素其實也是一大重點。12月18日這天，公投本應是當日的主角，但卻因為一則爆炸性的娛樂新聞而被奪去了鋒芒，新聞版面瞬間被娛樂新聞覆蓋，導致曝光率下降、民眾的注意力被分散，我認為這或許是致使投票率下降的原因之一。

第二點，我覺得由於公投案不會及時的影響人們的生活，或是根本不了解公投案將對他們生活帶來的影響，所以人們對公投的參與度及積極性並不高，我覺得針對這一點，我們應該要採取一些行動，因為這跟前幾篇文章中所提到的東西一樣，公投和環保、環境議題一樣，都是會直接影響到這個世界在未來的面貌的，而受到影響的不僅僅是我們，將來人類的後代也會受到影響。每個人都應該要清楚的知道，公投案的結果會對他們造成什麼樣的影響，包括未成年者。即使現在的他們無法發表自己的意見，但不代表公投這件事便與他們無關，他們還是應該要知道現在我們的社會正面臨著什麼樣的議題，不管結果如何，這些議題又會怎麼影響我們的生活。

最後，關於此次公投我的想法是，對於「珍愛藻礁」這個議題，我覺得投票沒有通過是一件令人惋惜的事，藻礁具有7600年的歷史、非常豐富的生態，而藻礁本身則具有相當高的研究價值，我認為在這樣一片珍稀的區域建立天然氣接收站是非常可惜的，我認為許多人可能並沒有真正深入的去了解每個公投案的背後所造成影響，和我們需要付出的代價，因此我才希望人們可以有更多的機會去了解「公投」、更完整的去思考這些議題將帶來的影響。

在這篇文章中，我們提到了可能致使投票率不如預期的外在因素、人們對公投的參與度及積極性、我對於此次公投結果的感想。這篇文章的總結是人們需要更完整的去了解每件事情，才不會做出令人後悔的決定。以上就是一個國中生對於此次公投的感想，希望這篇文章有幫助你從另一個角度來看公投。

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