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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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[Companies voluntarily offering*] Paid time off to vote is almost unheard of.
Employers are required [by federal law*] to give their workers (unpaid) time off to vote, but many can’t afford to take any time off, or fear for their job should they do so. The US minimum wage is only $7.25, and many need every penny of that. (Some cities and states have established higher minimums.)
*edited to add
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Wrong. 23 states require paid time off to vote, including California, Texas, New York and Illinois. Conversely, 18 states plus DC do not require any time off to vote.
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🗳 In Austria all elections are on Sundays.
You can choose to vote by letter in advance.
If you are sick or can’t walk, you can ask for an election team to come to your house.
There are election teams that visit homes for elderly people.
Election teams consist of volunteers of multiple parties - often all parties.
There is a voting station for about every 1000-2000 citizens.
There are no voting machines. Blind people get stencils.
Every ballot is counted by hand. Every party has trained volunteers on site to check on every counting.
If added votes for all parties don’t sum up to the total number of ballots, everything has to be counted again for this voting station again.
You can choose to vote by letter in advance.
If you are sick or can’t walk, you can ask for an election team to come to your house.
There are election teams that visit homes for elderly people.
Election teams consist of volunteers of multiple parties - often all parties.
There is a voting station for about every 1000-2000 citizens.
There are no voting machines. Blind people get stencils.
Every ballot is counted by hand. Every party has trained volunteers on site to check on every counting.
If added votes for all parties don’t sum up to the total number of ballots, everything has to be counted again for this voting station again.
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This thread is about Apple voluntarily offering all of their employees throughout the US paid time off to vote. OP asked how common it was for employers to do that. It’s not common.
But yes, I certainly could have been clearer that I was responding from a federal standpoint.
Happy to have a dialog, maybe you’ll respond to some of my previous replies instead of trying to play gotcha? 🙄
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That's not correct. 7 states allow employers to demand proof of voting if you exercise your time off rights.
The fact that you're registered to vote, your political party, which elections you voted in, and the method of how you voted are generally records that can be obtained from the state. The only thing that is secret is how you actually voted.
Nope still wrong. There is no Federal time off to vote law, it is solely a matter for state law.
As I said, 18 states plus DC do not require any time off to vote.
Your right! 👏
But imo it should be a federal crime to not allow time off for voting at least in states that don’t allow early voting.
One person one vote should be a federal law, not one person one vote as long as you live in the right state and don’t have to work.
Any interest in a back and forth dialog? Allowing some states (or companies) to disenfranchise voters is un-American, don’t you think?
Of course, if all employers offered paid time off to vote, we wouldn’t need federal or state laws to force them to.
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But people with low income might choose work over taking time off to vote?
I hope it’s not any more than four hours. My wife was telling me the other day that she read in some areas, due to the pandemic, they’ve reduced polling places from like 60 to just a few, and many states haven’t ordered any more mail-in ballots than normal.
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Woah, that’s an actual nice take on it. If it is treated as a holiday, all companies without exceptions would be similar like what apple is doing.
But better yet, if treated like lets say 4th of July (unlikely to match, but assuming), a celebration, mass proudful event, etc I think it would drive a lot more people cast their vote.
Granted though, won’t be perfect, a big chunk of society still works on any holiday at a given time, especially critical posts.
I don't believe that's how business works. I may be a cynic but I think the bean counters factor this in to how much you get paid anyway.
So you may think you've been given time off but actually they've reduced your pay by $10/year to account for the hour or two they lose. Nevertheless, the sentiment is a good one, time out for voting would go down well.
Same with, things like pool tables in the rest room. It's not only the employer being nice to you, you've already paid for them in the lack of a decent pay raise net year.
Still, the net effect is good so that's what's important.
Do you just have presidential elections in the US?
In Europe we have many others too.. Community, Regional, sometimes referenda. They're important too
I don't really know if we have the right to take time off to vote but in general this is widely permitted. Also, polling stations are extremely plentiful and open until late.
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Moderator Note:
Quite a few posts arguing about politics (unrelated to the thread topic) were removed. Please keep political comments out of this news thread. Use the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum if you would like to debate a political topic.
Quite a few posts arguing about politics (unrelated to the thread topic) were removed. Please keep political comments out of this news thread. Use the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum if you would like to debate a political topic.
Why is it dishonest? Is it mandatory for them to vote. It’s 4 hours off paid.
It's not 4 hours off paid. It's only provided for voting or working with the elections at a poling station. You are being paid by Apple to do those things and you are still representing Apple while you do them. You could really easily make the argument that Apple is paying people to represent them at the polls.
That’s definitely not ideal, but as each ballot is specifically tied to a person, could the other guy reach out and let them know he didn’t get his ballot, and have them void the one they sent you and send a new one to him?
That’s even shadier than using the time for your own use. Now Apple is paying their employees to vote for them
Is Apple saying you must vote on these hours? They offer 4 hours off paid. I would think it’s illegal to force the voting aspect.
I’ve seen it brought up at least a couple of times but the solution to most of these issues is vote by mail. It’s been working in Oregon for local elections since the early 80’s. In 1998 Oregon became the first state to conduct elections exclusively by mail.
“Election day” can be whenever I want within a several week timeframe, the state sends out a voters pamphlet with information on each law and candidate, so I can spend my time to research the issues and put some thought into my votes. If I forget to put it in the mail there are ballot drop boxes throughout the state that are emptied every day up until the very last day of elections at 8pm I believe. The city I live in has 2, and there are 25 in the county overall.
“Election day” can be whenever I want within a several week timeframe, the state sends out a voters pamphlet with information on each law and candidate, so I can spend my time to research the issues and put some thought into my votes. If I forget to put it in the mail there are ballot drop boxes throughout the state that are emptied every day up until the very last day of elections at 8pm I believe. The city I live in has 2, and there are 25 in the county overall.
But do we have to provide proof of US citizenship? Just asking for a friend. He works at Apple, last election voted in NY and Florida, that's pretty common here on the east coast. It's pretty easy now that we have early voting.
Or you can just vote absentee. Everyone Loves to make excuses why they can’t vote. I’d rather someone say I don’t feel like voting then always having a lame excuse. If you work 47 jobs just vote absentee. Case closed.
Wait. Is that better than a system where your voting behaviors are a matter of corporate record? And while could be used to influence pay, promotions, and continued employment it totally won't be.
Sure that would fix the problem for those who decide to do that. But let’s get back to the real issue here, you shouldn’t have to take 4 hours out of your day to vote. I live in a neighborhood where I can be in and out in 5 minutes casting my vote. Then you hear stories of people in Georgia waiting on line for 5 hours to vote. Access needs to be improved, big time. Put a polling place in every school, every library, in as many buildings as you can.
That is absolutely not true. There has been a significant 20+ year history of Russia hacking and interfering with Estonian, Latvian and, to a slightly lesser extent, Lithuanian elections. They cut their “worldwide voting interference” chops in the former soviet republics (especially Latvia) in an attempt to install ethnic Russian puppets into those regions to hinder NATO membership and the E.U., always a major goal of Putin’s. After 2016, Estonia could easily have said, “America, welcome to our club.”
In that sense you are right - but IMO the USA remains a much larger target. For those that are interested in an analysis of the weaknesses of the Estonian electronic voting system: