One of my goals in life is to be Miss America someday, and I'm one step closer this year as your Miss Erie Canal NY 2015. As a local titleholder, I have a lot of amazing opportunities and responsibilities, including competing for the title of Miss New York in June, being a spokesperson for our national platform Children's Miracle Network, and adopting our own personal platform. The personal platform issue I've adopted this year is Youth Involvement in Politics, which aims to inspire young people to educate themselves and get more involved in politics.
In the last midterm election, New York had the third lowest voter turnout rate in the entire nation. I believe it's time for a change, and this change can only happen by teaching young people to be informed, active citizens. With my platform, I encourage young people to educate themselves and others about important political issues, get more involved by volunteering with local political organizations or even running for student government or public office, and exercising their rights to vote and use their voice.
To get the word out about my platform, I'm utilizing social media, choosing a different political issue to focus on every week on my Facebook page. I've also developed a presentation for schools, with a different presentation for elementary, middle, and high school students, and linked up with local organizations in Ithaca NY such as the Ithaca League of Women Voters and Ithaca American Association of University Women.
Apart from taking my platform to local schools and organizations, I also hope to expand my platform to address some of the major issues with voting, such as accessibility. For many elderly voters and students like me, voting can be very inaccessible due to lack of transportation or being too far away from their voting location. For college students, I'm encouraging campuses to bring voting to the students, bringing voter registration drives and voting booths to college campuses. For the elderly, who often do not have adequate transportation to get to voting locations, I plan to encourage and organize transportation, finding buses and individual drivers to transport voters to and from voting locations.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas for my platform, or knows of any local or national organizations who might be helpful resources, please let me know!