EV owners volunteer to drive voters to the polls in 11 states (and you can too)

The US election is coming soon, with early and mail-in voting already open in several states. But for people who don’t have transportation to get to polling places, help might come in the form of a ride from an electric vehicle – and if you live in one of these 11 states, you can volunteer to help.

Giving people rides to the polls is nothing new in America. There are a lot of people with disabilities, people who can’t afford transportation, voting precincts that are spread out and difficult to get to a polling place in, etc., and giving these voters rides to the polls can help to increase participation of groups that are underserved by our electoral process.

Mail-in ballots and early voting also help to alleviate these issues and increase participation, but after their successful application to increase participation in the 2020 election, some states have rolled back their offerings in those respects, leading to difficulty for some voters.

And so, with EVs in focus in this election, EV advocacy group EVHybridNoire decided to give voters in 11 states a chance to experience an EV and also drive more voter participation at the same time.

It comes in the form of a new effort over at ChargeTheVote.org, which is accepting EV-owning volunteers to drive voters to their polling place, and also accepting signups to request a ride to the polls. If you’re interested in either, you can sign up here – as long as you’re in one of these 11 states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, or Wisconsin.

For more on the effort, read it in their own words:

ChargeTheVote.org is a nonpartisan voter education and engagement initiative to enhance voter turnout in the 2024 election by providing zero-emission transportation in electric vehicles (EVs) to local polling locations. This effort will simultaneously provide positive engagement with electric vehicles (EVs) and EV drivers local to their communities by assisting voters in exercising their right to vote via transportation in electric vehicles – EVs. This fosters a positive association with EVs in communities that have the most to gain including financial savings, good paying U.S. jobs across all skill levels, cleaner air, increased access to safe transportation, and more. ChargeTheVote.org is powered by the nation’s largest network of diverse EV drivers – EVHybridNoire. 

ChargeTheVote will also host a webinar for those who are interested in participating this coming Tuesday, October 22 at 7pm Eastern time. You can sign up for that webinar here.

So if you have an EV and want to help people vote, sign up! Or if you need a ride and wouldn’t mind trying out one of the latest and greatest in the automotive world, you can sign up too.

Just head on over to ChargeTheVote.org and scroll down to the signup portion.

Electrek’s Take

Exposure to EVs has been shown to increase people’s opinion of them, and also to decrease the effect that political attacks on EVs have. So while we don’t expect this to change the world, perhaps it can help to take the temperature down in the room.

We’d certainly like to see fewer nonsense attacks on EV technology, so the more opportunity to expose more people to how great it is, the better.

Charge your electric vehicle at home using rooftop solar panels. Find a reliable and competitively priced solar installer near you on EnergySage, for free. They have pre-vetted installers competing for your business, ensuring high-quality solutions and 20-30% savings. It’s free, with no sales calls until you choose an installer. Compare personalized solar quotes online and receive guidance from unbiased Energy Advisers. Get started here. – ad*