Business for Elections

Concrete ways for businesses to support fair, safe, and secure elections

After the 2020 election, it is more critical than ever to ensure our elections are fair, safe, and secure. To make our elections more participatory and thus more representative of the people’s will, business leaders can take tangible steps to support election efforts across the United States. Doing so strengthens our democracy, which is ultimately good for business. We encourage business leaders to let us know what steps they are taking through this form.

Read our launch press release.

ACTION STEPS

  • Host voter registration drives (especially on National Voter Registration Day) and bipartisan candidate forums 

  • Create a tab on your business website with information about how to register to vote, how to request an absentee ballot, and where and when to vote as well as a calendar with important election dates 

  • Encourage people to make voting plans

  • Send short, timely emails with relevant election information to employees and customers

  • Distribute sample ballots, so employees can research candidates and initiatives in advance and avoid any surprises at the ballot box

  • Donate air, radio, and digital space for voter education ads in partnership with nonpartisan civic engagement groups

  • Keep voting-related activities nonpartisan -- refrain from encouraging people to vote for a particular candidate and/or party

  • Give staff paid time off to vote on and before election day

  • Download, print, and hand out pocket guides on voting options in your county and state

  • Promote casting of absentee or mail-in ballots as early as possible or via drop boxes to avoid overwhelming state election officials and the U.S. Postal Service

  • Encourage people to vote early in person

  • Conduct “get out the vote” campaigns via social media and customer outreach

  • Use company vehicles to provide rides to the polls

  • Host virtual election day events to celebrate voting

ACTION STEPS

  • Encourage employees and customers to serve as poll workers

  • Offer facilities to serve as polling places and voting centers and provide food to voters waiting in line to vote

  • Offer secure facilities for ballot drop boxes

  • Repurpose manufacturing processes to provide PPE and other election and safety equipment to state and local election officials for in-person voting

  • Ask your local elections office about their needs -- maybe your business has the solution. In collaboration with your local elections office, you could offer services for printing, signs, banners, and other ways to make elections more visible in your community

  • Ask your government relations teams to push Congress and state legislatures to support the funding and implementation of a fair, safe, and secure 2020 election by expanding voting by mail, extending early voting, and maintaining sufficient polling stations

  • Support Secretary of State offices -- many currently lack sufficient funds to cover the surge in election costs

light blue busdem reform banner.png

ACTION STEPS

  • Partner with high-impact civic organizations doing election and democracy work and protecting voter rights, specifically in communities of color

  • Advocate for democratic reforms that foster more representative, solution-oriented public discourse at both the federal and state levels

  • Publicly disclose all corporate election-related spending, including contributions to ballot initiatives, SuperPACs, Trade Associations, and other dark money groups, and disclose the policies in place to ensure internal oversight and accountability for political engagement

  • Devise and disclose the policies governing political spending such that political spending is aligned with corporate values and strategy

  • Join business alliances and coalitions focused on nonpartisan civic engagement initiatives

  • Designate staff and resources to corporate social responsibility programs like voting

blue busdem banner resources.png

For Download

light blue busdem contact banner.png

We want to hear from you!

What steps is your business taking to make the 2020 election fair, safe, and secure?

 
 

Tell us below!