A growing number of businesses and other employers are taking innovative, effective steps to ensure that the 2020 elections proceed in good order — and that their employees have everything they need to exercise their right to vote.
Nearly 800 companies have now
joined Time to Vote —
a business-led, nonpartisan coalition that aims to increase voter participation
in the US elections.
Voter turnout in the US is one of the lowest in the developed world — and the
need for more and better engagement of the US electorate was never more obvious
as after the intensely polarizing 2016 presidential election, in which a mere 55
percent participated.
Having time off work is one thing that could help: Unlike in many other
countries, where voting is mandatory — and elections take place on Sundays, for
example, so as not to conflict with traditional work schedules — one of the most
common reasons people give for not voting in the US is that they’re too busy
with the demands of work and life.
Members of the Time to Vote coalition, which represents more than six million
workers in the US*, are addressing this challenge by giving their employees the
time and the tools they need to easily exercise their right to vote in the
November general election.
Research done by Sustainable Brands™’ Brands for Good collaboratory revealed
that voting is one of the nine most impactful
behaviors that
consumers can engage in to help create a healthy, equitable future for all.
Brands for Good Corporate Partners Clorox,
PepsiCo,
Target and
VISA; and Contributing Partners
Porter Novelli and WeSpire have joined Time to Vote.
In the summer of 2018, a diverse group of companies — spearheaded
by Patagonia, PayPal and Levi Strauss — came
together
to launch the non-partisan Time to
Vote coalition, committing to ensure that
their employees’ work schedules allowed them time to vote in that year's midterm
elections.
And if we thought the electorate was polarized in 2016 … On top of that, the
2020 elections are anticipated to be rife with their own challenges — thanks to
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the stakes for removing barriers to voting are
higher than ever. Additionally, with the elections set to take place in the
midst of a global movement for racial
equality, it
has brought to the forefront how communities of color are disproportionately
affected by systemic voter suppression — and the role CEOs can play in helping
to protect our democracy for all people.
So far this year, more than 700 companies – including workers in all 50 states
and spanning a variety of industries – have joined Time to Vote. Over 200
companies — including Bank of America, Ben & Jerry’s, Dell,
Discovery Inc, LEGO Systems, Nike, SAP, Tyson Foods, Unilever,
ViacomCBS and Visa — have joined in the last three months alone,
demonstrating the increased momentum of the movement as the election draws near.
“Since its inception, Time to Vote has been a powerful advocate for voter access
and participation,” said Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, VP and Women & Democracy
Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice — a leading nonpartisan institute
on democracy and justice in the US. “When so many influential business leaders
join forces — and take a stand on the vital issues of civic engagement — it
sends a compelling message. The Time to Vote coalition’s commitment to give
employees time off to vote, especially now when the challenges are so dire, can
address one of the biggest barriers to voter participation.”
Many Time to Vote companies have announced a variety of measures to ensure their
employees are able to fully participate in the general election — Apple,
Coca-Cola, Hewlett Packard
Enterprise,
Levi Strauss, The North Face, Salesforce, Target, Tiffany & Co., Tony’s
Chocolonely, Twitter, Uber and Walmart are among the companies doing
anything from making Election Day a paid company holiday or offering paid time
off on Election Day; and actively promoting initiatives such as early voting and
vote-by-mail, particularly in light of the challenges presented by voting amid a
global pandemic.
Time to Vote is asking more companies to join the movement. The goal is to have
more than 1,000 companies — from a diverse set of industries representing every
state — join the movement by November 3.
Businesses interested in joining Time to Vote can
visit maketimetovote.org.
Additional corporate efforts to ensure a smooth voting process for employees include:
-
More than 150 companies are participating in the Civic
Alliance, a non-partisan corporate-led
campaign that aims to identify 250,000 new poll workers to support a safe
and secure election process.
-
Over 320 companies, that employ more than 1.4 million employees — including Harvard University, MLB and Wayfair — have joined A Day for Democracy, another non-partisan initiative in which CEOs pledge to give their employees the day off to vote.
-
Kraft Heinz and Target have created websites to guide employees on
the voter registration process and to help them learn about candidates, in
partnership with the League of Women Voters and the National
Association of Manufacturers.
-
Several nonpartisan efforts — such as The Leadership Now
Project and
Electionday.org (an
alliance of 750+ leading companies) — have identified clear, straightforward
steps that employers can take.
*Due to age, citizenship status and other factors, not all workers are
guaranteed to be eligible US voters.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Oct 12, 2020 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST