The upcoming general election is likely a big deal to you as a citizen, regardless of your party affiliation or whether you are more interested in the presidential race or some important state or local race. It should also matter to you as an employer.
Employers view a big election from somewhere between two extremes. Some companies just want to know how they can be sure that election day causes the operation as little disruption as possible. On the other end of the spectrum is the employer that wonders how can it encourage all of its employees to get out and exercise their right to vote and perhaps even vote for the people the company thinks would be the best for the business.
Legal risk for employers exists at both ends of that spectrum. You must not deny employees time off to vote. Even if you want to encourage employees to take time off to vote you cannot coerce them to vote for the candidate or ballot question of the employer’s choice.
Here’s the easy part: Employees are absolutely entitled to time off with pay to vote provided that it is impractical to vote before or after work and they have requested the time off before election day.
Except for those folks who work a swing or grave shift the issue of impracticality is probably not worth fighting over. Of course you could start right now reminding employees about early voting and let them know the hours the polls are going to be open on election day. Encourage them to start thinking and planning how and when they will get to the polls. You can perhaps even create a form for them to fill out and submit to the company before election day so that the time off can be approved. The form should ask where the employee’s polling place is because the employee is entitled to  sufficient time to vote and according to the statute that depends on the location of the polling place relative to the work site. Here is part of NRS 293.463, (the entire statute is here):
A sufficient time to vote shall be determined as follows:
(a) If the distance between the place of such voter’s employment and the polling place where such person votes is 2 miles or less, 1 hour.
(b) If the distance is more than 2 miles but not more than 10 miles, 2 hours.
(c) If the distance is more than 10 miles, 3 hours.
What about an employer that wishes to recommend or encourage employees to vote a certain way? Remember that legal risk aside, some employees will always resent messages they think are meant to tell them how to vote. Consider your particular workforce and be careful not to create morale problems that outweigh the potential  benefits of advocating for your favorite candidates/issues.  What an employer may lawfully do depends on which elections are involved, federal or state.
Federal elections are governed by complicated rules put out by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Employers may always communicate to employees about legislative matters. However, such communications must deal with the legislation only—if any legislators are mentioned by name there can be no discussion of their re-election, opponents or candidacies.
Employers who wish to expressly advocate to employees the election or defeat of clearly identified federal candidates can do so only to a limited subset of its employees, identified in the FEC rules as the “restricted classâ€. The restricted class includes salaried officers, managers and professionals. It does not include hourly employees or members of labor unions. The restricted class does include stockholders, even if some of them happen to be hourly employees.
The only way for an employer to expressly advocate to hourly or union employees would be to follow detailed FEC rules and invite a candidate or party representative to appear in front of employees. If you wish to wade into this tricky area you should check out the rules here and definitely consult with your labor counsel.
For state and local elections there are no special rules. The rule of common sense should apply—don’t be heavy handed. Telling employees which candidates for state and local office would be good for the state, the business and ultimately for the employees is the best thing to do, if you choose to go that route. Then encourage employees to vote; however they ultimately decide.
To protect the company from claims of unlawful communications or coercion take these steps:
• Have your corporate policies and other communications make it clear that the company and its managers are prohibited from engaging in express advocacy for federal candidates to hourly employees, members of labor unions and other low level employees.
• Train managers who are lobbying employees that express advocacy must be limited to federal legislative matters and state and local candidates and issues.
• Prepare scripts for all messages and warn presenters to stick to the prepared materials.
Whether you end up celebrating or crying the day after the election do your best to plan ahead.