You registered to vote, you researched the candidates, and now all you want to do is cast your ballot and wear that oval “I Voted’ sticker with pride. But where’s your polling place, and how do you get there? In one survey, 14 percent of nonvoters (people who were registered to vote but didn’t) cited transportation as a major barrier to getting to the polls. For nonvoters under 30 years old, the number balloons to 29 percent. In order to ensure that everyone who wants to vote can do so, transportation companies across the U.S. are announcing promotion after promotion to help get people to the polls for next Tuesday’s midterms.
Public transit agencies in Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Houston are offering free metro or bus rides to and from the polls. Lyft is offering 50 percent off rides, while Uber is offering a $10 discount, but available only on the most affordable option (eg. a POOL instead of an UberX). Both rideshare companies are only discounting rides to polling places, not a roundtrip.
