Daily Archives: 4 November 2024

No excuses: give employees & volunteers all the time they need to vote tomorrow

A woman holds her ballot up proudly and is standing in front of the ballot drop box where she will drop it. She has a dog on a leash next to her.

Tomorrow, November 5, is election day in the USA. Millions of people have been able to vote early and have already submitted their ballot – as you see me doing in the photo at the right – but millions more could not do that, and the only way they are going to be able to vote is to go to a polling place on election day and probably stand in line for a very long time.

Please don’t limit your employees and volunteers to trying to vote before or after work, or over their lunch hour, if you are in a state requires voting at a polling place. Executive directors: tell your staff to let their managers know what three hour slot they will need for voting during the work day, and have managers tell YOU what three hour slot they will need.

Tell staff this is done on the honor system because OF COURSE you trust your staff to take only the amount of time they actually need to vote and to come back to work when they are finished – they won’t take three hours unless that’s what they actually need. Do NOT require things like a photo of them standing in line waiting to vote.

If your nonprofit won’t do this, if you refuse to do this, then let me be blunt: unfollow this blog, and unfollow me on social media. You don’t deserve my advice on anything.