10 days before the election you may have noticed a new sign up at work saying, “Time Off To Vote”.
Well, if you haven’t, it should be somewhere in the office if you work in California.
California election code 14000 allows for employees to take up to two hours off work to go vote without loss of pay with a few exceptions. For each statewide election, employers must put up some form of signage letting employees know that they can request time off to go vote.
Employees must request the time off at least two working days prior to the election. It is not required by the law for employers to pay for time taken to vote that is not requested.
“Hopefully, if you ask your employer today they will let you go,” Kim Alexander, the president and founder of the California Voter Foundation said the day before the 2018 November election.
The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Employers can allow for more time to go vote but they do not have to pay for more than two hours.
Unless otherwise discussed with the employer, an employee can only take the time at the beginning or end of the shift. Employees can go anytime in the shift if it is agreed upon with his or her employer.
The code allowing for time off to vote was enacted in 1994.
Alexander said that this election code is important because it allows for a way for voters to participate in the election despite having a busy schedule.
“Being busy is one of the leading reasons people say for why they didn’t vote,” Alexander said.
She also said that Sacramento County is further helping make that reason obsolete by allowing for voting to occur 10 days prior to the election.
Early voting centers opened Oct. 27 across Sacramento and Nevada counties.
Alexander said that the more time available for people to go vote the easier it could be to work around some of the busy schedules people have on a workday.
