On Nov. 8, 2022, voters will hit the polls and decide the fate of hundreds of candidates in the Midterm Election. All 435 U.S. House of Representative seats and 35 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats are on the line. Multiple governors will be elected and 88 of the country’s 99 state legislative chambers are holding their regularly scheduled elections on Nov. 8. This represents 6,166 of the country’s 7,383 state legislative seats.
Every race in the Midterm Election — whether it is at the local, state and federal level — is important and can have a big impact on a person’s job, community and daily life. That is why it is so important to vote and encourage others in your business to do the same.
As an employer, you are positioned to discuss elections with employees and provide them the tools they need to become informed and motivated voters. Many employees already may be registered to vote but there are many who are not or who have outdated registration information. There also are many who do not know when key dates are and may miss out on voting because they are out of town on Election Day. For these reasons, it is important to continue to talk to employees about getting out the vote and the impact that their ballot makes.
In 2020, 66.8 percent of citizens 18 years and older voted in the presidential election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While that is the highest voter turnout of the 21st century, about one-third of those eligible to vote did not cast a ballot in 2020.
To help build that engagement, Employee Voter Registration Week (EVRW) will be held Sept. 26-30, 2022. This effort — hosted by the Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC) of which the American Rental Association (ARA) is a member — is designed to encourage people to register to vote across the country.
During this EVRW, companies and associations will join together in an effort to encourage voter registration among private sector employees. The initiative does not tell employees how to vote or who to vote for, but instead it provides information to help employers encourage voter registration.
Ways to participate include:
- Sending out voting information to employees.
- Holding a voter registration drive.
- Posting important election dates in the break room or common area of your business. These dates could include voter registration deadlines, absentee, early voting and vote by mail deadlines, and the date of Election Day.
Another way is to share a link to the ARA Voter Resource Center — ARAvotes.com. This site is available for anyone in the equipment and event rental industry. Users can type in their address to find personalized voting information, such as important election dates, information on how to register to vote, polling locations and details on the various ways to cast a ballot. The ARA Voter Resource Center also offers information on top issues, elected officials and the latest political news.
Election day is a few months away but now is the time to make sure you are registered and gather information to determine how you will cast your ballot. Every state, except North Dakota, requires citizens to register if they want to become voters. Depending on your state, the registration deadline could be as much as a month before an election.
Now also is the time to think about how you will cast your ballot as Election Day nears. There are options depending on the state you live in. Besides voting in person on Nov. 8, some states allow voters to cast an absentee or mail-in ballot on or before Election Day. To do this, voters must request a ballot from their state. Some states may require voters to submit a valid excuse for why they want to vote-by-mail. Others can vote-by-mail regardless of their reason for wanting to do so. Each state has its own set of deadlines and rules regarding how voting is conducted. By visiting ARAvotes.com, users can find their state specific vote-by-mail rules and deadlines.
“We encourage everyone in the industry to take advantage of the ARA Voter Resource Center. It has been designed to be a one-stop-shop for all the voting information people need. The goal is to make the process as easy as possible to help encourage everyone to register and cast their ballot during this Midterm Election,” says John McClelland, Ph.D., ARA’s vice president for government affairs and chief economist. “Now is the time to make sure you and your employees are registered to vote and informed.”