Community advocates gather more than 58,000 signatures for Connect Bay Area ballot initiative, 6,000 for Stronger Muni for All

Community organizations and volunteers are nearing 60,000 signatures to help get Connect Bay Area, the regional transit funding initiative, on the November 2026 ballot. This effort, co-lead by Seamless Bay Area and Transbay Coalition, is the largest mobilization of Bay Area transit riders in recent memory. Over 900 volunteer signature gatherers have been trained across more than 500 signature gathering events in the last three months. 

Volunteers across the region are equipped with signature packets, clipboards, and pens in-hand to make sure transit funding gets on the ballot.

For example, people taking their packets to parties and kids’ soccer games to get signatures from friends and family, others are “adopting” their local farmers markets to gather signatures one morning each week, some folks are gathering at large events like the No Kings Rallies across the Bay and San Francisco's Hunky Jesus Competition and Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and some people gather while waiting at their bus stop.

It is gratifying to see that tens of thousands of voters care deeply about saving our transit systems, and doing the work to win in November. Every person we reach helps build the strength to pass this ballot measure and win transit future campaigns. And this work has not gone unnoticed either with local media coverage and our partners in labor, business, nonprofits, political clubs, and elected officials all joining the efforts. 

73 organizations including labor, Democratic clubs and transit, biking, walking, climate, disability, faith-based, and racial justice advocacy organizations have endorsed the Connect Bay Area initiative. You can see the full list on the Connect Bay Area endorsement page.

Our grassroots and volunteer efforts are a vital part of the campaign's overall signature gathering, which also includes professional gatherers who typically work with many campaigns at once.

Signature gathering is vital to save Bay Area transit

In order to get Connect Bay Area on the November ballot, we must gather valid signatures from 186,000 registered voters across the 5-county Bay Area – Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Santa Clara counties – before the end-of-May deadline. The campaign's goal is to gather more than 200,000 signatures as an additional cushion since some signatures can be invalid, for example if a signer put an incorrect address for where they are registered.

Without new funding transit agencies like BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit have laid out dire service cut scenarios. But through this campaign, we're showing we have the power to avoid this future and are building the base of support needed to create the world-class system that we deserve.

Please come to an upcoming event to get trained up, get signature gathering materials, and meet other gatherers!

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