OPM told agencies that they should allow up to four hours of paid time off per “election event” — including primaries and caucuses in addition to a general election. Image: flysnowfly/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffRepublicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee have challenged a Biden administration order that set a series of tasks for agencies to support voting and also opened the way for expanding paid time off for federal employees to vote or to perform roles such as poll worker.
In a letter to OMB, they requested information about the grounds for the order, saying they have “concerns about the lack of constitutional and statutory authority for federal agencies to engage in any activity outside the agency’s authorized mission, including federal voting access and registration activities.”
The 2021 order told agencies to evaluate ways in which they can promote voter registration and voter participation through steps such as providing information about how to register and voting options; and to allow nonpartisan third parties to conduct voter registration activities on federal property, among other responsibilities. It further instructed GSA to modernize and improve vote.gov to make it more accessible and told OPM to ensure federal employees have opportunities to participate in early voting.
OPM the following year told agencies that they should allow up to four hours of paid time off per “election event”—including primaries and caucuses in addition to a general election—for employees to vote in elections at all levels, and to allow up to four hours of administrative leave per leave year for an employee to serve as a non-partisan poll worker or to participate in non-partisan observer activities at elections, in addition to any leave an employee uses for voting. Previously, there was a more restrictive policy allowing time off for voting and no formal policy regarding time off for poll work.
“Equally troubling is the lack of transparency regarding the implementation of this executive order,” it says. The order requires agencies heads to submit to strategic plans outlining how the agency will implement the executive order but “only a handful” have released them, it says, asking for those plans as well as for a list of outside parties allowed to conduct voter registration on federal property.
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