Lyft will offer half-off rides to the polls on Election Day

SHARE Lyft will offer half-off rides to the polls on Election Day
lyft071116.jpg

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, file photo, a driver displaying Lyft and Uber stickers on his front windshield drops off a customer in downtown Los Angeles. | AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File

Commuters may see some voter information handouts leading up to the Nov. 6 midterms, and on Election Day, some deep discounts courtesy of Lyft.

The rideshare company announced Thursday that it is stepping up efforts to get its users to vote by slashing the cost of rides by 50 percent, and even offering some free rides, on Election Day.

With transportation a huge obstacle to voters – an estimated 15 million in 2016, according to a cited report – Lyft has identified low-income communities and communities of color that could use extra help getting to the polls. The “Ride to Vote” initiative is its effort to remove transportation barriers from the equation.

But Lyft’s work will begin well before Election Day. The company will make efforts to educate the masses ahead of the Nov. 6 election by sending mobile notification to users of the Lyft app and by providing drivers with handouts about voter registration and other voter information. Lyft employees will also be encouraged to register to vote at Lyft offices throughout the country.

According to a company release, “The Ride to Vote” initiative is a partnership between Lyft, Vote.org, Nonprofit Vote, TurboVote, and other groups that include Voto Latino, local Urban League affiliates, and the National Federation of the Blind.

Uber has not announced any similar plans as of Friday.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”