Q: I think that our democracy works better when more people vote and I want to help my employees do that in November. They are mostly a young group in their twenties, many of whom haven’t voted before but have expressed interest in the election. How can I help without getting political?

A: Kudos to you.   Only 56% of eligible Americans voted in the 2016 election. This is much lower than other developed countries in the world.

But there are hopeful signs. Overall voter participation was up during the 2018 midterms. But among 18- to 29-year-olds, voter turnout saw the largest percentage increase of any group.   From 20% in 2014 to 36% in 2018, — a 79% jump.

Your employee’s interest seems to be shared by that age group. According to Gallup, young adults are very interested in this election, 79% say COVID-19 helped them realize how politics impacts their lives, citing healthcare, climate change, and racism as top election issues.

Yet this age group is uninformed. For instance, 33% said they were unsure if they can register to vote online (yes, they can).

So here are two ways you can help, not just this age group but all of your employees:

First, provide well-sourced information and resources – There is so much disinformation going around in the news by politicians and commentators and by both naïve and malicious actors on social media. For example, there is no difference in Florida between “absentee voting” and “voting by mail”.  Providing specifics on the following would help:

• How do I register? www.Vote.org
• Is my registration still valid?
• When is early voting available?
• How do I request a vote-by-mail ballot (aka absentee ballot)
• What if I don’t want to use the post office to mail-in my ballot?

The second way to help is by offering employees time off to vote.  This year, because of Covid-19 employees should either vote early in person or by mail. But if for some reason they choose to vote in person on election day, give them time off, even if unpaid.So you don’t have to go all out and make election day a paid holiday –unless you want to and can afford the perk, but you can offer some paid time-off (say 2 hrs).  Consider at least:

• Offering a flex schedule that day
• Make it a day without meetings.

Lastly, do you know why election day is on a Tuesday?

Because 19th century American farmers needed a full day to get to their polling places and didn’t want to travel –via horse and buggy– on the Sabbath. In most other countries, election day is either a national holiday or on a weekend.

Check out: Time to vote which is non-partisan, business-led initiative for more employer resources.

©Copyright Eva Del Rio   Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com