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On Election Day this year, voters in Syracuse will have one more way to reach their polling places: a free electric bike ride.

Gotcha, a company that offers electric bike and scooter rentals, will join the North American Bikeshare Association in “Roll to the Polls,” an initiative across the bike-share industry to reduce or eliminate the cost to rent a bike on Election Day. In Syracuse, customers can access a free bike ride by downloading the Gotcha app and entering the promo code VOTE2020 when checking out a bike.

Gotcha has participated in the Roll to the Polls campaign in several of its other locations in the past, but this is the first year the initiative will operate in Syracuse, said Paul Colabufo, the community manager for Gotcha’s Syracuse location. Gotcha was unable to offer free bike rides in Syracuse on Election Day last year due to technical changes the company was making to its app, Colabufo said.

The program will run in over 25 of Gotcha’s other locations across the country this year, including cities and universities, according to the company’s website.

The Roll to the Polls campaign aims to help voters who lack reliable transportation cast their ballot, Colabufo said. In 2016, about 3% of individuals indicated that transportation problems prevented them from voting, according to the Pew Research Center.

“(Bike sharing is) a way for people who can’t afford a car to get around,” Colabufo said. “It’s important to be able to vote, and this is a way to open that up for everybody.”

Gotcha launched its “Syracuse Sync” electric bike share system in 2019, installing bike hubs in 35 locations across the city and the Syracuse University campus. The hubs are spaced roughly one-eighth of a mile apart, so they are close to many of the polling places in Syracuse, Colabufo said.

Gotcha bikes also have electric motors that assist riders with pedaling and provide faster travel speeds than a traditional bike.

Syracuse residents who would prefer not to vote in-person this election due to the coronavirus pandemic — even with access to free bike rentals –– can still vote by mail, said Dustin Czarny, the Onondaga County Democratic elections commissioner. One of the biggest changes to the election this year is the expanded use of absentee ballots, Czarny said.

With just over two weeks to go until Election Day, over 56,000 county residents have requested absentee ballots, and about 22,000 have already returned them, he said. In the last presidential election year, only 16,000 people requested absentee ballots and only 14,000 were returned, he said.

Polling places will also open for early voting from Oct. 24 through Nov. 1. Safety precautions will be in place throughout the in-person voting process, Czarny said. Voters and election inspectors are required to wear masks and voting stations will undergo cleaning after each use, he said.

Initiatives that make voting easier for a greater number of people, like Roll to the Polls, promote civic engagement, something that is especially important during a pandemic that has made voting more challenging, Czarny said.

“Easier to apply, easier to register — these are all things that go into all of the things we want for elections,” he said. “Programs that make it easier to vote can’t hurt. At the very least, there should be options for people.”

Published on October 18, 2020 at 10:28 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu