Campaign to save Bay Area public transit smashes signature gathering goal fueled by grassroots, transit rider organizing

The Connect Bay Area transit campaign submitted more than 305,000 signatures to qualify a regional transit funding measure for the November 2026 ballot – blowing past the 186,000 valid signatures required. 

The success of this effort was built on one of the largest grassroots transit organizing initiatives the region has ever seen with Seamless Bay Area and Transbay Coalition having co-led this effort. Since launching in January, we mobilized more than 1,000 volunteers at more than 600 signature gathering events spread across Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.

All together, community advocates gathered more than 77,000 signatures, about 40% of all the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. Community advocates turned in nearly 20,000 signatures since our last update in early May.

The Connect Bay Area five-county sales tax measure will provide long-term operational funding for major Bay Area transit agencies, while supporting projects to strengthen and connect transit systems across the region. Without new funding transit agencies like BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit have laid out dire service cut scenarios. Connect Bay Area will protect transit from devastating service cuts and will help VTA grow to better serve residents, workers, and businesses.

The more than 300,000 signatures – which were the result of both a paid effort and an advocate-led grassroots effort – will now be officially counted and validated by the Departments of Elections for each of the five counties over the next few weeks before the measure can officially be placed on the ballot.

As we gear up to pass the ballot measure in November, please sign up to stay in the loop about opportunities including phonebanking, canvassing, connecting with community groups, social media promotion, and other activities.  

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