It's worrying time for vulnerable older people, but The National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association is hoping to encourage elderly folks to cast their vote by offering a free, safe and sophisticated limo service to the polls.
In their limos to the polls program, the association is planning on getting 300,000 elderly people to the voting booths in style on Nov. 3, in Baltimore, Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles and Kansas City, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Each ride will be coronavirus-prepared, with sanitized vehicles, masks worn by drivers and passengers and only those from the same household allowed to travel together. Cars will be sanitized again at the end of each ride. Seniors who wish to sit while in line or while casting their vote will be offered a disinfested chair.
Funeral directors in Baltimore, for example, plan on delivering 21,000 people to vote in limos. The initiative is aimed at those who are 55 and older, but organizers will consider all ride requests.
Hari P. Close, president and owner of Hari P. Close Funeral Service in Baltimore explained that the concept has been running for 25 years in Baltimore, with huge turnouts to ride during 2008 and 2012, the years Barack Obama was elected president. People fear contracting coronavirus, and may have to travel further to the polls this year, so organizers say the limo service is more important than ever.
"The point is they need to exercise the vote. I know people in my family history that have been denied the vote or lost lives trying to vote," Close told The Sun.
"Now we're the above-ground railroad to get people to the polls, no matter where they stand on issues," Close said. "Whether I agree or disagree is not important. The point is they need to exercise the vote. I know people in my family history that have been denied the vote or lost lives trying to vote. This is a privilege as well as a responsibility."
In Maryland, 48 percent of residents plan on casting a postal vote this year, according to a poll by Goucher College. However, 51 percent of those surveyed planned on voting in person, some on election day others at early voting centers.
The limos initiative is about making the 2020 election fair and the most democratic it can be, explained Carmalita March-Harris, the vice president of March Funeral Homes, March Life Tribute Center and Marshall-March Funeral Homes: "It means leveling the playing field and allowing all people an opportunity to do one of our rights as Americans, which is voting," she said.
Newsweek has contacted the The National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association for further comment on the limos to the polls initiative.
