On Election Day, Businesses Step Up As Life Goes On

Tuesday is Election Day, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Also open will be banks, other financial institutions, as well as Pasadena City Hall and other government offices and agencies.

“We’re business as usual and are not aware of anything closed tomorrow,” city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said Monday.

Like most government agencies, banks are closed on federal holidays, as decided by the schedule adopted by the Federal Reserve. Holidays recognized by the Fed are New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day, according to the Federal Reserve’s website. 

This Election Day, a general election that occurs every four years (depending on the positions being filled with most positions good for four years) and includes the presidential election, is held the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But it is not a federal holiday, as some have argued it should be.

In California, the state Elections Code requires employers to post a notice to employees advising them of provisions for taking paid leave for the purpose of voting in statewide elections.

Further, according to the state Secretary of State website, employers must post the employee notice 10 days before a statewide election, which is simply an election held throughout the state.

The employee notice must be posted either in the workplace or where it can be seen by employees as they enter or exit their place of work. And employees are eligible for paid time off for the purpose of voting, but only if they do not have sufficient time outside of working hours to cast their ballot. 

The intent of the law is to provide a voting opportunity to workers who would not be able to vote because of their jobs. Employees can be given as much time as they need in order to vote, but only a maximum of two hours is paid. Employers may require employees to give advance notice that they will need additional time off for voting.

Corporate America appears to be stepping up in helping to fill the absence of a national holiday-designation for Election Day.

According to CNN, Coca-Cola is the latest major company to give its employees a day off for the presidential election.

The company made the change Monday following a viral tweet from comedian Sarah Silverman, where she tagged large U.S. companies asking them to make Election Day a paid time off holiday for employees.

A movement called “Time to Vote” launched in February to encourage companies to offer “paid time off on Election Day or making it a day without meetings.” 

So far, more than 600 companies have joined the list, including Best Buy (BBY), Gap Inc (GPS), J Crew Group, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Lyft (LYFT), Nike (NKE), Twitter (TWTR), and Visa (V) are on the list.

Apple (AAPL), which isn’t on the list, reportedly told employees that they can take up to four hours off with pay on Election Day, according to Bloomberg News.

“Time to Vote” says it is a nonpartisan movement to “contribute to the culture shift needed to increase voter participation in our country’s elections.” And it appears there remains a lot of work to do because voter turnout hit a 20-year low in the previous U.S. presidential election four years ago.

Roughly 55 percent of voting-age citizens cast ballots in 2016 — the lowest turnout in a presidential election since 1996, when 53.5 percent of voting-age citizens turned out.

As for the companies Silverman tagged, some didn’t immediately reply for comment, including Amazon (AMZN), Pepsi (PEP), and McDonald’s (MCD).