Five ways to aid employee voting in the final week

The election is in one week, but it’s not too late to help your employees vote. Colorado law requires that, in many circumstances, employers provide eligible voters two hours of paid time off to vote on election day. But employers can do more than the law requires, including:

1. Giving employers paid time off to vote at any time during the next week so that can vote early.
   
2. Making election day a paid holiday so that the entire employee base has all day to vote (and to help get out the vote, if desired). Hundreds of large and small companies across the country, including Rocky Mountain Anglers and Ultimate Direction here in Colorado, have signed on to this practice.
   
3. Declaring November 3 a meetings-free day (if it’s not already a holiday).
   
4. Sharing voting information with employees. For example, sharing that it’s too late to mail in ballots but not to register to vote and drop their ballots and how to locate where to do so. Make sure you translate into other languages, as needed, for your entire employee base to fully understand. The webpage of the Secretary of State has all the information you need.
   
5. Providing employees face masks and sanitizer to help them vote safely.

Democracy could use an assist from the business sector. Only 55% of voting-age citizens cast ballots in 2016 — the lowest turnout in a presidential election since 1996 (54%). This year has additional challenges to safe voting, including a pandemic, wildfires and social unrest. In other words, it’s as great time for employers to facilitate civic involvement.