Law requires employees be given time to vote

By Conor Shine

Monday, Nov. 3, 2014 | 11:30 a.m.

If you want to cast a ballot tomorrow on Election Day but are worried your work schedule will get in the way, don’t fret — state law allows you to take time off to vote.

A little known section added to state law in the 1960s guarantees the right of employees to take time off work to vote.

“The right to vote is respected in the law,” said Jim Wadhams, an attorney with the law firm Fennemore Craig Jones Vargas. “It’s a requirement that employers allow their employees time off to vote without penalty or without any other consequence.”

The law comes with a few caveats.

Most importantly, voters must notify their employers in advance — that means today — if they plan to take time off to cast their ballot. The boss also has a say about when employees can leave to vote.

Finally, employees must show it’s impractical for them to vote before or after their shift.

Most often, the law is used to allow employees to come to work late or leave early, Wadhams said.

Depending on how far employees live from their polling places, they can be allowed from one to three hours of paid time off to vote.

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7 p.m.

“As everybody is beginning to realize, (voter) turnout is very low,” Wadhams said. “Employers should encourage their employees to vote and allow them the time off, because the law requires it.”