Charleston, SC- Americans for Transit and Hungryneck Straphangers (
www.busec.org/vote) began a four day effort to reach transit riding voters in the SC1 special congressional election between Mark Sanford (R) and Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D, WF) with transit rider voter outreach at five Express Bus Stops around Charleston: Mount Pleasant, N. Charleston, Summerville, West Ashley and James Island at 5 am. Over 2500 transit riders were provided with voting information flyers in face to face contacts with organizers from the project.
The riders headed to work with a cheerful greeting from America’s rapidly growing transit rider organizing effort and a two page flyer with information about both candidates. The effort continued later in the morning with an outreach effort focusing on the area’s transit supported tourism and hospitality industry workers and business owners downtown. Today’s effort will wind up with a visit to this evening’s screening of The Island President, a film on climate change issues at 7 p.m. at The College of Charleston.
Americans for Transit Executive Director Andrew Austin led the effort in Summerville this morning. Since arriving form Washington, DC yesterday, Austin has been riding the local CARTA system, talking to riders and gauging the state of transit in the Lowcountry. He’s spent the last year traveling the nation by bus and train connecting riders to a new, positive model for transit organizing which has won 74% of the referendums put before voters, including a major effort to restore transit in Columbia, SC last November. He’s visiting this afternoon’s Richland Transit Rider’s meeting in Columbia.
Andrew Austin will be available for media interviews in Charleston, Wednesday evening and Thursday at the Earth Day Festival in N. Charleston. He can be reached at Andrew@americansfortransit.org or by calling 253-732-9434
Americans for Transit can be found on the web athttp://americansfortransit.org/