LA Metro To Offer Free Fare On California Primary Election Day

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Los Angeles voters heading to the polls on Tuesday can get free rides on public transportation.

L.A. Metro will provide free rides on all Metro bus and rail lines to help people reach the polls for the March 3 primary election. Fares will be waived from 12:01 a.m. Tuesday to midnight, transit officials said.

Other transit agencies are offering free fares on March 3, including Access Services, Antelope Valley Transit Authority, Culver CityBus, LADOT, Pasadena Transit and Long Beach Transit.

Also, the County Registrar-Recorder's Office has placed a vote-by-mail box in the east portal area of Union Station where voters can drop off their mail-in ballots.

The Metro headquarters at One Gateway Plaza and the El Monte Bus Station are being used as early vote centers, for those who don't want to wait until Tuesday to cast their vote.

This is the first election in L.A. County in which residents can cast a ballot at any vote center across the county, they are not limited to only their neighborhood precinct.

The change follows the passage of the California 2016 Voter's Choice Act designed to make the voting process more convenient.

It's also the first time L.A. County voters are using a modern touch-pad ballot marking device to make their selections. Those selections will then be printed out on a paper ballot.

Nearly 1,000 voting centers have opened up across the county since Feb. 22. In all, within the first 8 days of this voting period, 93,000 people have cast ballots in Los Angeles County, though there are more than 5 million registered voters in the county.

For the closest voting center to you, click here. For a list of ballot drop-off sites, click here.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)