Lyft Erected a Mural of Unused Ballots to Show What It Looks Like When You Don’t Vote

Roughly 15 million Americans who are registered to vote didn’t cast a ballot in 2016, citing transportation issues as the reason why. Lyft is aiming to fix that—or, at least, make things a little less expensive for voters—by offering 50 percent off Election Day rides on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

“We want to make it easier to get to the polls so people across the country can exercise their right to vote,” explained Mike Masserman, head of social impact for Lyft, via email. “Access to transportation is a major issue for many voters and we want to use our platform to help eliminate that pain point from the voting process and help ensure everyone’s voice can be heard.”

To make sure voters know about the offer, Lyft’s in-house creative team erected a mural made up of hundreds of unused ballots—a nod to the unused ballots of 15 million voters during the 2016 election—at 179 Chrystie Street in New York.

“We wanted to visually convey the weight of that statistic while spreading the word that we want to make it easier for people to get to the polls this year,” noted Jesse McMillin, vp and creative director for Lyft, in an email. “We were inspired by the visual history of political signage and loved the idea of putting paint, or in this case ballots, to the wall, and New York felt like the right place to display this piece.”

Interested Lyft users can look up local discount codes on Buzzfeed to get a discounted ride on Tuesday.

The company has also partnered with voter organizations across the country like Voto Latino, Vote.org, Nonprofit Vote, TurboVote.

Kristina Monllos

@KristinaMonllos

Kristina Monllos is a senior editor for Adweek.