People shouldn’t have to choose between working and voting, yet with Election Day not being a public holiday and falling in the middle of the week, millions of Americans aren’t able to take time off to make it to the polls. Voter participation has been as low as 36% (thirty six!) in recent years, far too often because of life and work obligations.
Today, we’re seeing corporate America take a stand and use its influence to promote voter engagement. CEO’s and leaders are coming together in campaigns like Time to Vote, Rock the Vote, and ElectionDay.org. QuotaPath has proudly joined Patagonia, Walmart, Lyft, PayPal, and more than 400 other companies in the Time to Vote campaign to increase voter participation in the upcoming midterm elections. And our efforts are paying off! According to a survey from Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), in 2018 44% of U.S. employers offer their workers paid time off to vote, which is an all-time high.
While QuotaPath has made Election Day a company-wide holiday, other companies are creating a variety of programs to remove barriers of participation. Some companies, like Lyft Inc., are setting a “no-meetings” policy or hosting voter registration drives. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but it’s important that we all support employees during the election in whatever way works for your organization.
But of course it doesn’t start and stop there. There’s so much more companies can be doing such as including voter registration forms in employee onboarding packets, offering rides to polling places, hosting informational sessions on local candidates, having voting parties, being vocal on social channels, and providing direction to absentee ballot application sites, just to name some ideas.
We hope that we set an example for companies in Philadelphia, Austin, and beyond to join us in the movement. We want to encourage others to commit to giving employees the time, flexibility, and resources they need to vote. We’re aiming to create a pro-voting environment at QuotaPath. By providing employees with information on local issues, candidates, and details on early voting, we can help take out the intimidation and confusion by demystifying the voting process, and even make it fun.
QuotaPath is celebrating democracy and using our voice and influence to make a difference this midterm election. We’ll see you at the polls!
