Public transit to the polls

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – For this general election, finding a polling place in Warren County has never been easier.

Any person who lives in the county can go to any polling place in the county.

This change done during the COVID-19 Pandemic has been lauded by some a much easier and more streamlined way than the precinct model that is for now at least part of the past for Warren County. One issue remains however – getting to the polls.

This year, there are multiple options available for those inside the Bowling Green City Limits who might not have a car or for those who simply don’t want to use their own.

GoBG is the public transit system in Bowling Green. The service operates five bus routes that span the city and in the case of the upcoming General Election, their stops are often near many of the polling locations within the city. This means that one could theoretically enter a bus, take a short walk to a polling place, return to the bus and do their grocery shopping all in the same day without using their personal vehicle.

Director of Neighborhood and Community Service Brent Childers says that the ridership on the service has been slow to recover from the pandemic, much like major services elsewhere in the United States, but the service remains low cost and can get people to the polls if they so choose.

“We have five routes that run 612 hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.. So the running the whole time that the polling locations are open, we have routes that take you all over the community. So depending on where you live and what’s the closest polling location, you can go to the website, find the map, you can actually go use the move it feature on the website and you can put in your location and where you need to go, and it’ll tell you the most efficient way to to get there,” Childers said.

The second options is a bit more unique and is run by the Historic Railpark and Train Museum here in Bowling Green – their trolley, which runs a historic tour part of the year and is available for private booking. Through a tourism fund from their underwriter, the Warren County Fiscal Court, the trolley has been made available for free transit to and from four different pickup points and two polling locations within the city. Executive director Jamie Johnson wants the service to be there and free for people who live near the pickup points of the trolley.

“On Nov. 7, the trolley will operate as a hop on hop off option for people to get to the polls and vote. And so we actually have stops that will be making that day. We’re going to run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. We’ve got four spots where we’re picking up and then two spots that are actually voting, locations where we will drop people off,” Johnson said.