AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Decent Work & Economic Growth, Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions, Trust, Tolerance & Empathy
KEYWORDS
increase voter participation, social equality , Voting
COUNTRY
United States of America
DESIGNED BY
Time To Vote
WEBSITE
https://www.maketimetovote.org/
Time to Vote
Workers shouldn’t have to choose between earning a paycheck and voting.
One of the most common reasons people give for not voting is that they’re too busy with the demands of work and life. To address this barrier and increase voter participation, a diverse coalition of companies came together in the summer of 2018 to launch Time To Vote. The companies made a commitment to ensure that their employees had a work schedule that allowed them time to vote in that year's midterm elections.
In 2018, more than half of U.S. eligible voters cast a ballot, the highest turnout rate for a midterm election in recent history, according to the Pew Research Center. In addition to helping drive voter participation, Time To Vote received coverage from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and TIME, as well as accolades from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Brennan Center for Justice.
This movement is a non-partisan effort that demonstrates the power of what the business community.