As an intern for Planned Parenthood, I’ve found that the most important task at hand is to educate voters about the importance of women’s health in politics, and then come November, inspire them to vote! However, many Americans are skeptical about voting. We think, in the overall outcome of the 2008 election, my vote won’t really matter, right? After all, according to the Federal Elections Commission, 122,267,553 people voted in the last presidential election.[1] There is just no way that as an individual, my vote will make a difference on the outcome.
But, to me, voting is more than whether my candidate wins or loses. It’s about my voice being counted – I want to send the message to all politicians that young people vote, women vote, and (more importantly) young, pro-choice women vote - therefore they are going to have to listen to what we are saying. When I started working as an intern for Planned Parenthood, I found out about their One Million Strong Campaign, and I was ecstatic! The first thing we can do as a coalition of one million people is demand that women’s health be a priority in this election. John McCain has an extreme (and extremely scary) record on women’s health, but right now the issue is just not being talked about, and people simply don’t know. Secondly, we can gain the strength in numbers to start turning politics in
If we really do get 1,000,000 people to the polls to vote for a pro-choice, pro-women’s health, pro-family planning president, our impact as voters goes from miniscule to enormous. Yes, 1 in 123,000,000 is not such great odds. But, being 1 in every 123 voters is not such a bad impact after all, huh?
- Lindsay, Harrisburg
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