Trinity Metro to offer free rides for voters even after county commissioners pull funding

The Tarrant County Commissioners Court will no longer pay for free bus and train rides for voters headed to the polls, but that doesn't mean they still can't ride for free.

A day after County Judge Tim O'Hare filed a motion to end a county subsidized program to help pay for free rides on Election Day, Trinity Metro said they'll still offer free rides to polling locations "to remove any transportation barrier that would prevent anyone in our community from voting."

During Wednesday's meeting, O'Hare proposed ending a program helping pay for rides to the polls because he didn't think it was the responsibility of county government to get people to voting locations. He also suggested that doing so may violate federal law around expenditures to influence voting.

"That is not the responsibility of county government. It's not the responsibility of taxpayers, which is where all our money comes from," O'Hare said. "I'm well aware that this court has done this in the past, it looks to me it's pretty clear doing so violates federal law."

Since 2019 the Tarrant County Election Transportation Program has partnered with organizations like Trinity Metro in at least five elections to offer free transportation to voters headed to and from polling locations.

According to a document filed with the commissioners court, Trinity Metro gave nearly 3,000 rides during the March 2020 primary and more than 5,600 during the presidential election in November. Those totals include both early voting and voting on Election Day. The rides were estimated to have cost more than $6,000 during the primary and nearly $11,500 during the general. Tarrant County reimbursed Trinity Metro one-half of the fare value up to $10,000.

The program was hoping to again provide free rides during primary season, on Primary Election Day on March 5 and during early voting and election day voting during the primary runoff in May.

O'Hare also said the program only supported "a small section of the county" and that he didn't think taxpayers across the entire county wanted to pay for a small section of the population to be able to get on a bus and vote. O'Hare suggested that people who had trouble making it to the polls on Election Day should take advantage of voting by mail or early voting.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks rejected O'Hare's position that it wasn't the county's responsibility to help people get into voting booths saying, "We have a responsibility to make it easy for people to vote. Period."

Wednesday's vote to deny the funding was approved 3-2, with Brooks and Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons voting against the measure.

In a statement Wednesday, Trinity Metro said they understood the commissioners voted to not work together on Election Day transportation and that they were disappointed to see the partnership come to an end.

That isn't an end to the free rides, however. On Thursday, Trinity Metro said they still planned to offer free rides for voters on Election Day, Tuesday, March 5 on Trinity Metro buses, ZIPZONE on-demand rideshare services, ACCESS paratransit, TEXRail and through Trinity Railway Express stations in Tarrant County, including CentrePort.

“We are offering free rides to remove any transportation barrier that would prevent anyone in our community from voting,” said Trinity Metro President and CEO Richard Andreski. “The ability to vote is one of our core rights, so we want to do our part to help residents exercise that right.”

Trinity Metro said customers should notify their driver or train conductor that they are traveling to or from a voting location to get a free ride.

Primary Election Day is March 5. Early voting is currently underway until Friday, March 1. Any primary runoff will be held on May 28. Early runoff voting will run May 20-24.