Yates County SCOPE works to educate the Electorate

The easiest way to lose your independence is not to vote.  Every vote counts! Yours just may be the most important. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.  Several races are won by a slim vote margin even by a flip of the coin in the county election office. For 17 years, The Yates County SCOPE organization has been active in the defense of the 2^nd Amendment of the Constitution.  The PE in SCOPE stands for “Political Education” and carries the obligation to reach out to the public and educate them on the value of this Keystone Amendment.

To accomplish this task, we undertake two separate events that allow SCOPE to headline to the public our goal of education. In this endeavor every August we host a “Meet the Candidates” Pig Roast. SCOPE invites candidates that wish to represent us in political office to meet Yates County Residents.  This pig roast is the largest county wide event for political candidates to come face to face with the public.  We invite all candidates, all parties, to come mingle, interact and speak to their constituents.  This year we will host our 17^th Annual Pig Roast on the 24^th of August.

2019 is an off-year election cycle so outside of two 7^th District Supreme Court justice positions open, we have only local open offices this year. During state and national election cycles we invite the US Senate, US Congressional, NY Gubernatorial, NY Senate, NY Assembly and NY State Supreme Court 7^th Judicial District candidates to pig roast.  We do not stop with the Federal and State positions that are up for contest.  At our annual pig roast, we carve out time for all County and Town candidates running for office to speak.

On October 3rd Yates County SCOPE host our Judges Night. We invite the public to attend this meeting held at the Elks Club in Penn Yan, NY.  At this event we concentrate on inviting the candidates running for the New York State Supreme Court, 7^th Judicial District.  This event has always been well attended.

Invitations to speak are made well in advance so candidates have a chance to limit any conflicts in their travel as they move around the state, county etc.

Education of the electorate is important.  The voter must hear all points of view of candidates if they are to become informed.  Yates County SCOPE will continue to do our part in bringing all candidates, regardless of party to the voting public for examination of the issues facing our towns, county, state and country, it’s what we do.

Jack Prendergast
Chairman Yates County SCOPE