(This column originally appeared in The Hill)
In South Africa’s first free elections in 1994 after apartheid ended, millions of black people perished in bombings in order to elect Nelson Mandela.
An unknown number of people were beaten or killed for voting in Zimbabwe in 2008.
And in Iraq, after the war in 2005, militants attacked polling stations, killing dozens of people; despite all these threats, millions of Iraqis turned out to cast their votes in multiple elections.
Meanwhile, in 2024 America, employers all over the country are paying their employees to take time off of their jobs in order to vote. Some states actually mandate this.
Really? The last I checked, a typical workday is from 9AM to 5PM. Polls open at 7AM and close at 8PM. This seems like plenty of time to vote.
More people than ever are working from home. I’m sure they can steal away to their local polling location during lunch or a slow time during the day. But no, that’s too inconvenient. So now, more than ever, people are expecting to be paid to vote.
They want to be allowed to leave work, commute all the way home, cast their vote and then commute back to work, all on their employers’ dime. Apparently they feel it’s their employer’s responsibility to ensure that they participate in the democratic process.
As an employer — and like many employers I know — this is frustrating. And as an American — like many Americans I know — this is disgusting.
The fact that we live in a society where people literally elect their entire government is a historical aberration. According to one recent study, almost half (45.4 percent) of the world’s population lived in a democracy of some sort in 2023 and more than one-third (39.4 percent) of the world’s population lived under authoritarian rule. Like so many others, these people would risk their lives for the right to elect those who lead them. They wouldn’t ask their employers to be paid for such an honor, such a freedom. They’d be grateful.
But fine: there are some outliers. There are people who have very busy and demanding schedules, and it’s difficult balancing family and work pressures. There are others where work hours aren’t conducive to getting to the polls on time. And there are some employers — not many, I’m sure — who would penalize their employees for taking the time off to get to the polls.
All of these are obstacles, but regardless, I don’t think employers should be paying their employees to take time off to vote. In fact, I don’t believe employers should be engaging in any politically related activities. Politics leads to trouble for businesses. You’re bound to upset someone. It’s best just stay out of the issue altogether.
In the last election, approximately two-thirds of eligible U.S. citizens actually voted. And that was the highest percentage recorded since 1900. Is it the employer’s responsibility to fix this problem? No. Governments should fix this.
In 17th century England, the very few lucky people who could vote (landowners, gentry, etc.) were allowed to do so during a voting period that could last an entire planting or harvesting season. So why in 21st century America does voting have to be done in just one day?
I’m not saying we should have a voting “season,” but maybe a solution to this challenge is to extend voting to a two- to three-day period, maybe even over a weekend. This way, workers would have more choices as to when they could cast their vote. And employers could be off the hook.
Another thought: rather than going down the slippery slope of creating federal holidays that honor one ethnic group over another, how about a national holiday for Election Day? What could be more important than that? Make election day a Monday or a Friday to extend the weekend and allow people (and their employers) not to worry about taking time off to cast their ballot.
Finally, a modernization of our election process would also fix this problem. Even in Philadelphia, a big city, I have to wait while a senior citizen sifts through a giant three-ring binder of forms to find my name for me to sign before being given a piece of paper to take with me in the voter’s box. This information can’t be online? I can’t validate my identity with Google Wallet or something like it? By doing this, the government would then give voters the ability to vote from anywhere, even when they’re travelling, instead of being forced to visit their local polling station. Someday we should be able to vote from our devices too, no?
Paid time off to vote? That’s not the employer’s problem. And it shouldn’t be.
