Civic Time Off

Civic Time Off is an easy, flexible way for employers to boost civic engagement among employees and benefit their local communities. By encouraging employees to consider using paid time off to serve as nonpartisan poll workers, employers play a critical role in filling the need for election workers across America—while giving employees the opportunity to gain knowledge on how elections are administered.

Increased civic engagement has positive benefits for businesses, communities, and employees. Studies have shown that higher rates of civic participation correlate to healthier employees, including better psychological well-being, physical benefits, and emotional health. Additionally, economists have found that a healthy democracy is critical to a healthy free market economy.

Implementing Civic Time Off is a way for employers to help increase civic knowledge, trust, and engagement among employees, leading to stronger communities and a more robust civic culture.

Civic Time Off is a flexible initiative that’s open to employers of any size, anywhere in the U.S. Since Civic Time Off is designed to encourage more Americans to serve as nonpartisan election workers, all that’s necessary for employers to participate is to include poll working in paid time off policies and share information with employees on how to sign up.

Employers have full discretion in implementing Civic Time Off. They can offer extra time off or simply inform employees about using existing paid time off. This initiative is designed to be as flexible and accommodating for employers’ existing policies as possible, while encouraging employees to help fill a crucial need for nonpartisan poll workers.

Ready to get started? By following the 3 steps below, employers can play a critical role in filling the need for election workers across America—while giving employees the opportunity to gain knowledge on how elections are administered.

Make a company-wide decision to implement CTO. Plan a rollout to stakeholder groups, with special attention paid to engaging employees. ​

Make a company-wide announcement about CTO.

Spotlight and celebrate employees who serve as nonpartisan poll workers, continuing to encourage employees to take advantage of this opportunity. ​

*The organizations on this website do not constitute endorsements and are listed for the purpose of providing additional resources.

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This map reflects the organizations that have shared information about poll worker recruitment or whose employees have signed up to become poll workers.