Use Your Taxi Apps to Vote Like a 1 Percenter Tuesday

Lazy people have even less excuse to avoid voting Tuesday thanks to Boston’s dueling taxi-hailing apps, Uber and Hailo, both of which are offering you free rides to the polling place. Okay, so the rides aren’t free, but both companies are offering the same  gimmicky discount of $20.12 off a ride taken on Tuesday, which is a pretty hefty subsidy. Yes you can roll up to the polling place in a cab or black car like a true 1 percenter (or person of otherwise moderate means who prioritizes transit expenses in their budget. Whatever.)

Hailo says in a press release that its users should enter the promo code “VOTEHAILO” into their app to get the $20.12 credit automatically.

Uber is offering nearly the same promotion, right down to the price and the promotion code (“VOTEUBER”), although their deal has a few more rules.  It’s limited to first time customers. (Sad trombone.) Also, though Uber offers a yellow car hailing service, this promotion requires you to take your ride in one of their black cars. The rate for those is higher so the $20.12 won’t get you as far, but the other hand, you will look pretty spiffy rolling up to your polling place in a limo. (Folks might mistake you for Mitt Romney himself! Or John Kerry! Or … other rich people!) And finally, they’ll require you to actually use the discount to go to or from a registered polling place, which is probably a good thing, because well, we know some of you were thinking you’d use a discount aimed at enabling your precious right to vote to instead take a limo home from a bar Tuesday night … We shake our heads at you.