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The Biden administration last week announced that federal agencies will now allow employees to take time off to vote in federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial elections.
Employees may also use leave to serve as non-partisan poll workers or observers.
Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) during a virtual event Thursday afternoon.
“We believe the federal government should serve as a model employer — and, by the way, we’re the largest employer in the country, so we can do this and we should do this — and then, therefore, serve as a model employer when it comes to helping employees participate in their democracy,” Harris said. “And we’re going to therefore call on all employers to do the same.”
In March 2021, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on ‘Promoting Access to Voting.’ In the order, President Biden directed OPM to explore strategies to expand the Federal Government’s policy of granting employees time off to vote, including through efforts to expand early voting. It also directed OPM to explore ways to support employees who wish to serve as non-partisan poll workers or observers.
Under the specifics of a memo from OPM Director Kiran Ahuja to the heads of federal departments and agencies, federal workers should be authorized up to four hours of administrative leave to cast votes in a wide variety of elections, for federal offices as well as tribal, state and local races that may occur on different days. The directive also applies to primaries and caucuses, as well as to early voting windows.
“Scheduling of administrative leave for the above-described purposes is subject to a determination by the agency that the employee can be relieved of duty during the specific period of time requested by the employee without significantly impairing mission-essential operations,” the memorandum said.
