NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — If you are among the hundreds of thousands of people planning to make their voices heard on Election Day, then we have some exciting news.
There are several local groups who have all been actively working to make it easier for you to make it to the polls. Churches, public transportation agencies, and even kindhearted neighbors are standing by to provide rides at no cost.
"We just want to get souls to the polls," explained Pastor Marcia Burns with Lee Chapel AME Church.
On Election Day, Burns said she plans to help out her neighbors who are without transportation.
"We want to give everyone a fair chance because we're there to serve the people," she added.
She, along with several others will spend Election Day behind the wheel.
"I hope the turnaround will be great. We'll fill up one load, drop them off, and go back and pick up another load and come back. And that's what we're praying for," Burns described.
Lee Chapel church member David Ashley is helping out too.
"This came out of a pastor's meeting at Lindsey's barbecue about a month ago, and all of us were there eating lunch and trying to figure out what we could do to help this political process. So rides to the polls kept coming up," Ashley explained.
Lee Chapel is just one of multiple churches participating. St. Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock, First Baptist Church in North Little Rock, and The Mercy Church in Little Rock are just some of the others that are helping out.
"We've got 20 individual volunteers, and that's growing just about every hour. So we've got people close to people that can go over and give the neighbor a ride that they didn't even know. So we can make it convenient, and we can get them where they need to go vote," he added.
Ashley welcomes more volunteers to offer rides to and it's not just limited to the Little Rock metro. He said there are volunteers set up all over the state who are ready to give rides to the polls on Tuesday.
"I've already given a lot of rides. And some of the people in the individual things, individual folks have given rides as well," he said. "It's an American value that we want to make sure that we let every one of our children know, our grandchildren know, every one of our friends, our families, church members, co-workers. We want them to know that it's not war, it's. It's a vote. So it's really that simple."
Rock Region Metro is also offering fare-free rides to the polls on Tuesday in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, and Conway.
Lyft is offering a 50% discount, up to $10, on rides to polling stations on Nov. 5 by using the code VOTE24. The promotion is good for car, bike or scooter rides from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. in every time zone and is limited to one ride per person.
Uber rolled out new in-app features to help people find their nearest polling center and other reminders to encourage riders to vote. They are offering 50% off rides to polling places up to $10. The offer runs Nov. 5 from midnight through 11:59 p.m.
Lime Bike is offering two free 30-minute rides from now until Nov. 5 with promo code VOTE2024 to help people get to and back from their polling locations.
If you would like a ride from one of the local churches, please call (870) 686-2419.