As an Apple stockholder, I support it. As an American citizen, I think we should move elections to either Saturday or Sunday and/or have vote by mail for all or on request for any reason.
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Apple Providing U.S. Employees With Up to Four Hours Paid Time Off to Vote in November Election
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With vote by mail done right, you have a verifiable paper trail for every single vote. The only way to commit fraud is to literally coerce or pay off individual voters.
Fraud at any scale simply isn't economically viable unless you attack the counting system itself, and that's what the paper trail is for.
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No, it wasn’t. If I lived in Canada and upset w/ how bad my country is and complaining about the voting system - I’d be asked to move.
A fundamentally good decision.
Now please make sure you’re registered to vote. You don’t need your employer’s permission.
www.usa.gov
Now please make sure you’re registered to vote. You don’t need your employer’s permission.
How to confirm your voter registration status | USAGov
Find out how to check your voter registration. Make sure you are still registered to vote and your name, address, and political party affiliation are correct.
www.usa.gov
We were the beta. Everyone knows there are bugs to work out in future releases.
They also need to move the day you pay your taxes the day before the elections. People may vote differently. Strange how it's nearly 6 months opposite. 
For normal 9 to 5 jobs, yes. But in the US with the majority of low-income working 2 jobs or more. Having to taking care of their kids. This is a good move by these tech companies. If those in power really cared they would make is a federal holiday and for those who vote can deduct a percentage from their taxes. I believe Australia does something similar.
Too many jurisdictions have different nuances to their voting rules for this to be the case. Check the differences in hours for polling places by state: https://ballotpedia.org/State_Poll_Opening_and_Closing_Times_(2020).
The US is famously nonstandardized, and it’s entirely feasible that someone with a regular shift job couldn’t make it from work to their assigned polling place in time, particularly if that person lacks private transportation. (I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case for Apple workers). To say nothing of those who don’t work standard shifts, work additional hours, or hold multiple jobs.
I also appreciate the idea that people might not have to rush in order to vote. Voting is the outcome of deliberation, and should therefore be deliberate.
In short, voting should not be a burden but a joy. More employers should help to promote positive voting experiences, with the help of more broadly supportive legislation — for instance maybe a company could write off PTO for voting from their corporate taxes.
(I do not think you were suggesting otherwise; I’m just stating my stance).
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When people say "It's the right thing to do", they mean morally, not necessarily legally. They'd say "It's the legal thing to do" if they wanted to convey the legaly-rightness of it.
You might want to re-read my comment. I said that Canada is possibly the best country in the world, but our electoral system isn’t perfect (there’s no such thing as a perfect system). What about that would prompt you to suggest that I should leave? 😂
It’s like when iPhone lovers point out any little imperfection and people reply, “if you don’t like it, get a Samsung!”
You can love something and still acknowledge that it’s not perfect. That’s how improvement happens.
I completely agree. I enjoy, for instance, considering much of what the Megan McArdles or—to a decreasing extent—Rich Lowrys have to offer.
I agree that suggesting the press and polling staff would need to be paid to work on is an absolutely stupid argument against not polling on weekends.
In case people haven’t noticed, the news is reported on 7 days a week already. News does get produced on weekends. And you know what, if they didn’t want to they could just not cover it, although that will obviously never happen. Sure they’ll have more staff in, they’ll also have 100x the viewership of normal.
As for polling staff, please. They have one or two weekends to work probably on average every two or three years.
Instead, to protect those two small little groups we have cases like this very article where companies are paying staff to be absent from work. Thats the best case. While they won’t be fired there’s staff at other places that might have to give up part of a shift to get to a poll, assuming they don’t do a postal vote. Yes some people work weekends normally but it’s a minority, there’s obviously going to be a far greater economic impact to mid week polling. You can see that quite result in the comments here about implications and requirements to allow people to take time off in voting day.
As you point out, it’s mandatory to vote in Australia and we get around a 99-point-something rate between a weekend poll and early mail in for those that can’t make it, and most businesses don’t have to worry about paying for staff to attend.
They also need to move the day you pay your taxes the day before the elections. People may vote differently. Strange how it's nearly 6 months opposite.
Except 8 in 10 people get a refund, and thus would not have the psychological impact you’re thinking it would.
they‘ve been doing that for a long time - and frankly, all companies should. That said: in Europe, elections almost always happen on weekends when most people are off anyway. Perhaps that‘s a model the US could also adopt.
No way of knowing. But I don’t think Apple really cares if someone tries to scam them out of four hours pay.
Dishonest people eventually get caught.
Right. No one in the USA is compelled/required to vote, and it would be unacceptable for an employer to require proof.
No matter what day of the week it is, some people will have work. It might lower the number that require accommodations though.
Yea... wait, the pole workers or the poll workers? Because...
In Australia we vote on a Saturday, why does the US vote on a weekday?
Some also have three, if they hold the presidential preference primary separate from the state primary like my home state of Missouri does (March and August, respectively).
That’s just one of many stupid things we do here 🤣
Why is your election on a week day and not on Sunday? Always seemed silly to me. Almost seems like the US tries its best not to get „lower class“ people who really need every penny, to vote
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