Go beyond encouragement to get employees to vote, panel advises

"I Voted" stickers for early voters Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, at the Benton County Election Commission office in Rogers.
"I Voted" stickers for early voters Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, at the Benton County Election Commission office in Rogers.

SPRINGDALE -- Helping employees navigate voter registration and absentee balloting is as needed as encouraging them to vote, panelists said Friday.

The Northwest Arkansas Council and EngageNWA asked three business leaders and Secretary of State John Thurston, the state's leading election official, to talk about their efforts to encourage employees to vote without telling them who and what to vote for.

The council is a group of community and business leaders who focus on regional needs and goals. EngageNWA is a nonprofit group encouraging acceptance of the region's increasingly diverse population.

The panel met and took questions at a video seminar Friday.

One of the panelists, corporate counsel Karen Gillespie at Kitestring Technical Services in Bentonville, said she became a poll worker to improve her understanding of the process. Kitestring is an information technology company. Other panelists were Lee Culpepper, vice president of public affairs at Walmart, and Lee Bansil, vice president of corporate communications at Tyson Foods.

"It can be as simple as not having meetings on election day," Bansil said when asked what companies with few employees or resources can do to encourage voting. The most important action is to give "full-throated support" to employees voting even if they have to take time off to do it, Gillespie said and the others agreed.

Companies of all sizes can help employees check their voter registration and help them obtain absentee ballots if needed, Culpepper said. Gillespie added knowing the ins and outs of registration, absentee voting and in-person voting also helps.

"If you ask for an absentee ballot, for instance, and decide later not to use it and vote in person instead, your vote will be put on a provisional ballot," Gillespie said. Provisional ballots are those that have been challenged and are only counted if an election result is close. The reason for that, she said, is "because the state has already recorded you as an absentee voter." Thurston confirmed Gillespie's explanation.

Requests for absentee ballots are exceptionally heavy this year because of the covid-19 pandemic, Thurston said.

"There will be a spike in absentee voting," he said during the panel. "We are already seeing that."

Some employees will need help as basic as a ride to the polls to vote in person, Gillespie said. There are volunteer groups who provide that, she said.

Walmart gives three hours of paid time off to vote, Culpepper said, and is providing texts and other forms of communication on social media on how to check registrations, get absentee ballots and vote, he said.

Walmart and Tyson cooperates with Facebook groups that use the native languages of employees whose primary language is not English to help them vote if they are eligible, he and Bansil said.

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Secretary of State’s website for checking voter registration or to request an absentee ballot:

www.sos.arkansas.go…

Doug Thompson can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWADoug.

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