The Biden administration carved out paid administrative leave to encourage federal bureaucrats and other employees-seen as a loyal Democrat constituency-to volunteer as poll workers.
"In recent years, more and more private sector employers have provided time off to their employees to vote," OPM Director Kiran Ahuja writes in a memo made public through the FOIA. "With more than 2.1 million civilian employees, the federal government is the largest employer in the nation. As such, the federal government has the opportunity to serve as a model employer and set an example for other employers to follow."
Agencies should also allow employees to use up to 4 hours of administrative leave per leave year to serve as a non-partisan poll worker or to participate in non-partisan observer activities at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial level.
This leave is in addition to any administrative leave an employee uses to vote.
Federal employees are spread across the United States and do not lean in one direction, said Jacqueline Simon, policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employees union, which counts 750,000 members.
A poll last fall suggested that federal employees' actual voting might not reflect Democrats' big advantage in contributions from government employee PACs.
"FCA and FCSIC employees may use up to four hours of administrative leave to vote today in Maryland's local primaries," according to a memo to employees dated July 19, 2022.
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