Time Off to Vote — Employee Voting Crush on November 4

There is every indication that, even with absentee and early voting in some states, November 4 will see the largest voter turnout in decades. Tales of long waits to vote early portend what’s likely to come next Tuesday. There are always voting problems at the polls even when turnout isn’t heavy. Part of your job this year is to prevent voting problems from entering your workplace.

An earlier post detailed employee time off to vote statutes in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Some states have no statute on this subject. Most do, and while there are similarities, all are somewhat different.

If the high voter turnout spills over into the workplace and becomes an employee voting crush, you could find it challenging to comply with the law in your state and keep your plant or facility up and running on November 4. Be ready for an unusually large number of voting requests from your employees. If you haven’t done any planning for this possibility, it’s not too late. As part of the planning, I suggest that you ask the following questions:

1. What does the law in the state or states in which our company does business require?

2. If your state doesn’t have a law, should you still give employees a reasonable amount of time off to vote? (Be careful here. While making this gesture in such an important election sounds good, consider the precedent you could be setting and its impact on other leave policies. Get legal advice.)

3. If you’re in a state that requires a certain amount of paid time off to vote, what if an employee has to stand in line for a longer period of time than allowed by the state statute? Do you have to pay the employee for the extra time it took to vote? (Probably not, but you may want to anyway. Again, be careful about setting precedent. Get legal advice.)

4. If you’re in a state that says an employee isn’t entitled to time off during working hours when the polls are open two or three hours before the employee is scheduled to begin work, what if the employee goes to vote during those two or three hours but has to stand in line so long that he/she can’t get to work on time? If the leave is paid, do you pay the employee for the extra time in line? If the leave isn’t paid, do you discipline the employee for being tardy or count the extra time as PTO or vacation? (Same considerations and caveats as those stated above.)

5. What if an employee doesn’t give the advance notice required by your state statute? Do you bend a little and let the employee have time off to vote anyway? (Same considerations and caveats as those stated above.)

The above isn’t intended to be a complete list of questions. It wouldn’t be possible to think of all the questions that will arise on election day in the workplace. The above list will hopefully get you thinking and planning.

No company or organization wants to become the poster child for employers who make it difficult for their employees to vote, particularly this year. I suspect the last thing you want is a TV crew at your front door, demanding to know why you won’t let your employees vote. Even if your state doesn’t have a statute on this subject, it’s probably fair to say that every state’s public policy encourages its citizens to vote. So, taking some time to think about how you’ll handle November 4 will make November 4 much easier to handle.

The following tips (some of which are repetitive) may be of help: (1) Be reasonable, at least within the parameters of any applicable law, but beware of unintended precedents. (2) Communicate to your supervisors and managers that there could be some voting questions asked of them on November 4, that they shouldn’t give any knee-jerk reactions, and that they should coordinate all responses with HR. (3) Be consistent. (4) Get legal advice. (5) Remember that legal maxim, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

And good luck.

Get a free white paper on election 2008 with a sample policy on time off to vote, a chart of the employee time off to vote laws in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia

1. 

   ACU Frank says:

   October 31, 2008 at 12:18 pm

   We communicated our “time off to vote” policy a few weeks ago, and actually altered our business hours for 11/4 to make it even easier. Not surprisingly (to me), within an hour of sending out the e-mail, I received not one but two replies complaining that the policy was unfair. The problem? We give paid time off to vote (as required by state statute), but only to those who are actually scheduled to work that day. Employees who are already off all day Tuesday don’t receive any paid time to vote, natch.

   Sigh… the entitlement mentality is alive and strong, people.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   November 1, 2008 at 10:48 am

   Thanks for your comment, Frank. No good deed goes unpunished.
3. 

   K Ford says:

   November 3, 2008 at 11:30 pm

   “”Sigh… the entitlement mentality is alive and strong, people.”"
   You haven’t begun to see the outstretched hands of the “needy” “greedy” and “seedy”…….

   Let me know if you need anything…..
   and I will tell you how to get along without it.