METRO offers free rides to polling stations for early voting on Election Day – Houston Public Media

Metro via X

Transportation to polling stations has now become much easier. During early voting and on Election Day, Metro offers free rides to and from polling stations.

Early voting began October 21st and ends Friday, November 1st. Election day is Tuesday, November 5th.

In a press conference Tuesday, Metro Chairwoman Elizabeth Brock urged voters to bring friends to the polling place and take advantage of free transportation.

“We want to support you in the election because elections matter, experience matters and who represents you matters,” Brock said.

Drivers must show their voter registration card to the driver. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said there was a significant turnout in Monday’s early voting.

“Look at the options you have and vote,” Whitmire said. “We encourage everyone to vote, every community to get involved.”

According to the Harris County Clerk’s Office, more than 125,000 people voted Monday.

“I encourage people with disabilities and people from vulnerable communities to take advantage of this opportunity because your voice matters,” Whitmire said.

According to Harris County County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth, Monday’s voter turnout was near record-breaking.

“We have capacity at all of our 88 vote centers and it looks like we are moving toward the 2020 trend,” Hudspeth said.

Hudspeth believes the misinformation online that ballot papers with her initials are invalid is untrue.

“Voting for the November 5 election in Harris County is underway,” she said. “As the chief election official, I want to remind voters that they will see my initials on their ballots during the early voting period and the presiding judge’s signature on their ballots on Election Day.”

With all the activity in the voting centers, Hudspeth said they are now prepared for crowds.

“Every single voting center in this election has an overcrowding of voting machines,” she said. “We have a surplus of ballots and things like that. So when we hit record participation and things go down, we watch that throughout the day.”

Hudspeth says they take no risks when it comes to the proper delivery of items such as voting machines, ballots, vote center staff and technology teams that can respond quickly to each vote center to make voting as smooth as possible. This is all due to the 2022 ballot shortage, which was ultimately caused by an employee filling out timesheets in his absence to make it appear he was working.

Are you worried that you will have to wait a long time to cast your vote? The clerk’s office will also take care of this.

“When voters go to harrisvotes.com, they can look at a vote center and see a wait feature. Our election judges are quite busy, so we ask them to update the wait time every 15 minutes,” said Hudspeth. “Green means go. Yellow means there may be some traffic. Red means there may be a line.”

Hudspeth says busy is good, meaning voters value the chance to vote early and take advantage of the opportunity: “Voting early makes sure you get it done and out of the way.”