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VERIFY: Is your employer required to give you time off to vote?

Our VERIFY team is here to help cut through the confusion about election day.

WASHINGTON — QUESTION:

Is your employer required to give you time off to vote?

ANSWER:

It depends on where you live.

SOURCES:

D.C. Law 23-110 

Maryland Election law § 10-315

Virginia Department of Elections

Office of Personnel Management

PROCESS:

First, our researchers looked into the D.C.’s Leave to Vote Amendment Act of 2020 which went into effect in June.

It requires employers to give employees at least 2 hours of paid leave to vote in person if the employee is eligible to vote and requests time off.

Credit: WUS9

Maryland law says employers must let employees take two hours of paid leave to vote. But, there are a couple of catches to qualify.  

First, the employee has to be working Election Day without two hours of continuous time off while the polls are open. 

Second, employees may have to show proof they voted, which is something they can get from an election official.

Credit: WUSA9

Next our researchers looked at the Virginia Department of Elections.  

Virginia law requires employers to grant time off requests from employees who are “election officers” and gave their employer reasonable notice.  But, that law doesn’t require it to be paid.

Credit: wusa9

For federal employees, we checked with the Office of Personnel Management. 

Credit: OPM

The agency issued this memo in September saying the “Federal Government has a long standing policy of granting employees limited time off from work (i.e., excused absence) to vote….”

The note goes on to say it’s at the agencies discretion. And because of early voting and extended hours at polling places, The Office of Personnel Management says excused absences should rarely be needed.

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