Free Bus Rides Proposed for Fall Election

Milwaukee County Supervisor Peter Burgelis is proposing that the county provide transit service at no cost on election day in November to encourage voter turnout.

The supervisor, who represents parts of the city of Milwaukee, West Milwaukee and West Allis, authored a resolution that would use $63,000 from the county’s contingency account and use it to cover the cost of providing free bus rides and paratransit service on Nov. 8. It would not, however, reimburse riders for a day of their weekly or monthly transit passes.

If approved by the board, the resolution would make it the county’s policy to “display the importance of voting and encourage all citizens to fulfill their civic duty of voting unencumbered by allowing no-cost access to public transit.”

The $63,000 figure was supplied to Burgelis by the Milwaukee County Transit System, he said, and it would apply $50,000 toward transit costs, and $13,000 toward paratransit.

Using funds from this account has become a source of debate for the board, as the county has been projecting a budget deficit for much of the year and and every dollar spent out of this account is another dollar that can’t be used to offset the budget gap and would require offsets through budget cuts.

Burgelis told Urban Milwaukee that he is currently trying to secure funding from local non-profits to cover the cost of service that day. The board is not holding regularly scheduled committee meetings in October, in order to focus on preparing the 2023 budget, so the resolution has to go to committee this month.

But the fiscal note for the resolution states that the latest budget projection from the Office of the Comptroller shows the county is no longer projecting a deficit and is now projecting to break even by the end of the current budget year. However, that figure does include all the funds currently in the contingency account. “Use of funds from the Appropriation for Contingencies either decreases the County’s overall surplus at year’s end or increases its deficit,” the fiscal note states.

The resolution states that the rate of voter turnout in Milwaukee County for the 2020 general election was outpaced by nearby counties that also have large numbers of registered voters: Dane County, Ozaukee County and Washington County.

“For many people, transportation to their polling place can be an impediment to voting, effectively disenfranchising them from the electoral process,” the resolution states.

Making public transit free for elections is something that municipalities around the country have offered during past elections. In June, The Los Angeles County Transit Authority offered free bus and train rides on election day. But the practice has also seen political opposition. In 2018, the City of Lafayette, Louisiana entertained the idea of offering free public transit on election day, but dropped the idea after the state Attorney General Jeff Landry said the practice was illegal, arguing the state’s law does not allow anything of value to be offered to encourage voting, the Lafayette Daily Advertiser reported.

Wisconsin State Statute Chapter 12, which governs prohibited election practices, carves out an exception to election bribery prohibitions for “any person from using his or her own vehicle to transport electors to or from the polls without charge.” And in 2016, the City of Green Bay offered free bus rides to a polling place for students at UW-Green Bay.

However, state election laws have not stopped Republican activists, lawyers and elected officials from contesting the results of the 2020 election or attempting to ban election practices that were previously uncontroversial; one example being the onslaught of lawsuits against absentee-ballot drop boxes. Burgelis told Urban Milwaukee that he discussed the content of the resolution with the Milwaukee County Office of Corporation Counsel prior to drafting the resolution.

Burgelis told Urban Milwaukee that he sees his resolution as piggybacking on the $50,000 approved by the board in July for voter registration and outreach.