State Department employees can leave early today… to vote

Are you a State Department employee who forgot to vote this morning? Well, you have a right to take off early this afternoon to perform your civic duty!

State Department employees can request late start or early exit permission today, but only to vote, according to an Oct. 20 internal memo. The policy states that employees can leave work (with boss’s approval) three hours before the polls close. In Washington and Maryland, that’s 5 p.m., so that might not help if you work the 9-5 shift. But if you vote in Virginia, you can request to leave at 4 p.m.

If your voting location is more than three hours away, perhaps you can take the whole day off!

"Supervisors have the authority to grant leave in accordance with the Department’s policies and are encouraged to be as accommodating as possible to facilitate employee voting while ensuring that uninterrupted services are provided by their offices," the memo reads.

Full memo after the jump:

Voting Leave Policy

The Department of State encourages all employees to vote in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections on November 2, 2010.  Although most employees have sufficient time to cast their ballots before or after work, in some cases additional time may be needed. This notice establishes the Departmental leave policy that will apply to employees voting in the general elections on Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

Granting Excused Absence for Voting

Where the polls are not open at least three hours either before or after an employee’s regular work hours, a supervisor may grant a limited excused absence to permit the employee to vote.  Such an excused absence is limited to the time necessary to permit the employee either to report to work three hours after the polls open or to leave work three hours before the polls close (whichever requires the lesser amount of time off).  "Regular work hours" means the time of day the employee normally arrives at and departs from work. 

The voting hours in the Washington metropolitan area are:

An employee who resides in Virginia and who works from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. — the Department’s regular workweek schedule in the Washington metropolitan area — may be granted up to 45 minutes of excused absence at the start of the work day if he or she needs this extra time in order to vote.  By contrast, an employee who works these hours and votes in the District of Columbia or Maryland would not be eligible for any excused absence because the employee would have a three-hour window at the end of the day in which to vote without taking time off. 

Extended Commuting Distance

Teleworkers who live beyond normal commuting distance are encouraged to schedule telework on Election Day, if practical, to reduce the amount of leave time required. 

If an employee’s voting place is beyond normal commuting distance and voting by absentee ballot is not permitted, supervisors are authorized to grant excused absence (not to exceed one day) to allow the employee to make the trip to the voting place to cast a ballot. 

Supervisors have the authority to grant leave in accordance with the Department’s policies and are encouraged to be as accommodating as possible to facilitate employee voting while ensuring that uninterrupted services are provided by their offices. 

Please direct any questions about voting leave policy to your bureau’s Executive Office or by e-mail to mailto:HRLeave@state.gov.