The below letter is a gesture spearheaded by the Pacific Council on International Policy to encourage peer organizations to make Election Day a paid organizational holiday starting in 2020. Please read and share the letter below, and contact Marissa Moran Gantman, the Council’s chief communications officer, at mmoran@pacificcouncil.org if you would like to join us as a signatory on this letter.

____________________

A Letter on Making Election Day a Paid Organizational Holiday

The Pacific Council on International Policy has joined with the nation’s leading civil society organizations in taking the step to recognize Election Day (November 3, 2020) as a paid organizational holiday. We are choosing to close shop on Election Day in order to encourage staff to vote without the roadblock of needing to be virtually present for work. We invite our peers to do the same.

In the final weeks leading up to November 3, we are recommending our staff confirm their voter registration is up-to-date and make a plan to vote. We are also directing those who are able toward information on signing up to be poll workers, volunteer roles that will face new challenges during the pandemic.

We are choosing to close shop on Election Day in order to encourage staff to vote without the roadblock of needing to be virtually present for work. We invite our peers to do the same.

We believe this is the right course of action this year and in future election years as a way of showing practical support for the institution of voting, a foundational democratic right and value. We believe that to vote is to participate in and uphold a fundamental institution of democracy that reinforces the integrity of electoral and political processes in the United States and abroad.

By closing our workplace on Election Day, we join peers around the world based in countries that have made Election Day a national holiday. We hope that one day our federal government will consider the same, but for now encourage like-minded organizations to consider their own Election Day closures.

Signed,

The Pacific Council on International Policy 

The Leadership Council for Women in National Security

World Affairs

United Way of Greater Los Angeles

Los Angeles Urban League

The Truman Center for National Policy and Truman National Security Project