Roundup: US employer resources on employee voting rights/trends 

October 22, 2024

Federal law does not require private-sector employers to give employees time off to vote, but many state laws do. In March 2022, the Office of Personnel Management announced that federal employees may now receive up to four hours of administrative leave to vote in federal, state, local, tribal and territorial elections. Federal employees also may now use up to four hours of administrative leave per year to serve as nonpartisan poll workers or observers. Introduced in March 2024, the Time Off to Vote Act would require employers — upon the request of the employee — to provide at least two consecutive hours of paid leave to vote in federal elections. To help employers address the related issues, this roundup provides links to some general information about voting rights and trends from organizations, government websites, third-party resources and news articles. 

• Compensation requirements ­— deductions: Under the FLSA, an exempt employee must receive a full day's pay for the partial day worked, as deductions for partial day absences generally violate the salary basis rule (Department of Labor)
• Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act (Department of Labor) 

• Presidential election, 2024 (Ballotpedia)
• States that require employers to grant employees time off to vote, 2024 (Ballotpedia)
• State laws on voting rights/time off to vote (Workplace Fairness, 2024)
• Voting & COVID-19: Links to state resources (Vote.org)
• Voting leave laws (Employment Law Handbook)
• Elections and campaigns (National Conference of State Legislatures)
• Are we obligated to give employees time off from work to vote? (SHRM)
• Election day in USA in 2024 (Office Holidays)
• Election day 2024 in the United States (Time and date)
• State laws on voting rights/time off to vote (Blanchard Walker)
• The state of voting leave (Center for American Progress, Oct. 21, 2024)
• Election fever: Navigating political expression in the workplace (Buchanan, Oct. 21, 2024)
• Is your workplace election ready? Voting leave laws across the States (Covington, Oct. 18, 2024)
• Yes, you can take time off work to vote. Here’s how (NPR, Oct. 14, 2024)
• Time off to vote policy: 2024 employer requirements (HireVentures, Oct. 14, 2024)
• 2024 election: What employers need to know about employee voting leave (Jackson Lewis, Oct. 11, 2024)
• Debating politics at work: from elections to DEI (podcast) (Jackson Lewis, Oct. 10, 2024)
• 2024 employer’s guide to state voting leave requirement (Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, Oct. 8, 2024)
• Navigating employee political speech and expression in the workplace (in an election year and beyond) (Fredrikson, Oct. 8, 2024)
• Can an employer regulate its employees’ political speech or activity in the workplace? (video) (Littler, Oct. 3, 2024)
• Employers, be aware of voting leave laws for your mid-Atlantic employees! (Shawe Rosenthal, Sept. 27, 2024)
• A state-by-state guide to voting leave compliance for employers (GoCo, Sept, 24, 2024)
• Election season: Key reminders for employers (Employment Law Watch, Sept. 18, 2024)
• Know your obligations to employees as voting day approaches (McKnights Senior Living, Sept. 16, 2024)
• Employees’ right to vote: An overview of employer voting requirements (Foreward, Sept. 16, 2024)
• Do your employees get time off to vote? A state-by-state guide for employers (Fisher Phillips, Sept. 12, 2024)
• Political speech in the workplace: Strategic considerations for employers (Ogletree Deakins, Sept. 12, 2024)
• Politics in the workplace and the risks of social media (Littler, Sept. 10, 2024)
• OPM reminds agencies on policy allowing administrative leave for voting (FEDweek, Sept. 3, 2024)
• OPM reminds agencies to grant feds leave to vote (Government Executive, Aug. 30, 2024)
• 2024 presidential election: Employer voting leave guide (Network Today, Aug. 28, 2024)
• Which states mandate paid voting leave for employees (Axios, Aug. 27, 2024)
• Election (non) interference: Update on state voting leave requirements for employers ahead of the 2024 Presidential election (Ogletree Deakins, Aug. 23, 2024)
• It’s election season! Regulating political speech in the workplace (Akerman, Aug. 19, 2024)
• Election season is upon us: Navigating politics in the workplace in 2024 (Squire Patton Boggs, Aug. 5, 2024)
• Early in-person voting (National Conference of State Legislatures, July 1, 2024) 
• It’s an election year: Understanding restrictions on employer actions regarding employee political activity (Seyfarth, June 4, 2024)
• Politics in the workplace: What employers need to know (Littler, June 4, 2024)
• State laws: Time off to vote (SHRM, April 2, 2024): The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has provided sample policies, tools and resources for employers. Some access is limited to members only.
• An election year reminder to employers: Know your state’s voting leave laws (Maynard Nexsen, March 20, 2024)
• Managers can’t escape politics in the workplace in the 2024 election year. Here’s how to navigate political tensions in the office (Fortune, March 4, 2024)
• How HR can guide a workplace through the 2024 election season (SHRM, March 13, 2024)
• Fixing your voting policy: a snapshot of voting leave laws (Butler Snow, Feb. 29, 2024)
• Time off for voting: What HR needs to know (HR Brew, Feb. 12, 2024)
• Election season in the workplace: Employers’ essential FAQs for 2024 (Fisher Phillips, Jan. 12, 2024)
• Options to vote in person before election day have grown (National Conference of State Legislatures, Oct. 26, 2023)
• A state-by-state guide to where you’re guaranteed paid time off for voting — and where you aren’t (CNBC, Nov. 8, 2022)
• Election day should be a ‛day off’ US President Joe Biden says (Reuters, June 24, 2021)
• Make election day a national holiday (Brookings Institution, June 23, 2021)
• Election season and the workplace, Part 2: Political leave laws (Proskauer, Oct. 16, 2020)
• Employees’ right to take time off to vote or serve as an election official (Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, Oct. 12, 2020)
• Election season and the workplace, Part 1: Employee ‛free speech’ and political activities (Proskauer, Oct. 3, 2020)
• Do I need to take PTO to vote? Ask HR (USA Today, Oct. 1, 2020)
• Dear Littler: What are our voting leave obligations? (Littler, Sept. 30, 2020)

• California: Time off to vote notices (Secretary of State)
• California law allows time off to vote on election day (Secretary of State, Feb. 25, 2020)
• A reminder to California employers: Time off to vote notice requirement approaching on October 26 (JD Supra, Oct. 17, 2024)
• Connecticut enacts law providing employees unpaid time off to vote (Jackson Lewis, June 25, 2021)
• Illinois: Right to vote on election day (HR Source, March 12, 2024)
• Illinois: Gov. Pritzker signs legislation to expand vote by mail, promote safe participation in the 2020 election (Government, June 16, 2020)
• Indiana: List of 2024 state holidays (Government)
• Maryland: State employee holidays 2024 (Government)
• Massachusetts law about time off to vote (Government)
• Massachusetts law about elections and voting (Government)
• Montana state holidays 2024 (Government)
• Election day reminder — Nevada law requires paid time off to vote (Kamer Zucker Abbott, June 8, 2022)
• New York state voting leave rights (Government)
• Is politics at work business as usual? What New York employers need to know as the elections approach (Ogletree Deakins, Oct. 15, 2020)
• Voting-leave laws: What employers in New York should know before election day (Lewis Brisbois, Oct. 12, 2020)
• As election approaches, New York employers need to be aware of paid voting leave and voting rights posting requirements (Littler, Oct. 1, 2020)
• New voting leave laws in New York State and Washington D.C. (Proskauer, May 19, 2020)
• Puerto Rico’s new electoral code creates two hours of paid voting leave (Littler, Aug. 10, 2020)
• Texas: Voting time off (Government)
• Washington D.C. enacts paid voting leave (Sequoia, July 24, 2020)

• Time to vote: A nonpartisan effort for companies that want to contribute to the culture shift needed to increase voter participation in US elections. The group is led by CEOs who are interested in increasing voter participation. (Time To Vote)
• Top CEOs urged to give paid voting leave for US election (subscription required) (Bloomberg Law, Oct. 16, 2024)
• More companies are giving employees time to vote in 2024 (Inc., Aug. 21, 2024)
• More businesses pledge time off to vote as leave laws stagnate (Bloomberg Law, Oct. 26, 2022)