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About TO2V

The Time Off to Vote movement was founded by student members of the Every Vote Counts network in order to ensure that every eligible voter has the time they need to vote on Election Day. We believe that no one should have to choose between earning a paycheck and practicing their most basic democratic right.

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What is Every Vote Counts? 

Every Vote Counts (EVC) is a student-led, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing voter turnout and expanding voter access nationwide. They go about that on a day-to-day basis by supporting students, chapters, and partners that seek to be hubs of civic engagement on college campuses, and currently have a presence on nearly fifty campuses around the country. Find out more about EVC at evcnational.org.

 

What is the Time Off to Vote Letter Campaign? 

Students from a handful of chapters and partners within the EVC network have launched a campaign to get student government leaders from campuses across the nation signed on to an open letter advocating for Time Off to Vote that will be sent to the companies that employ recent college graduates. The goal is to leverage the unique voice and power that students, as future employees, can have in advocating for this important policy, and get as many student body leaders that can sign on behalf of their peers on board as possible. It is worth noting that this letter can and has also been used as a way for students to kickstart an effort to expand conversations around Time Off to Vote on campus, from working with faculty to try and avoid scheduling exams and papers on election day to discussing the potential for a university holiday and Time Off to Vote for university employees with the administration.

 

The letter was drafted in collaboration with Student Government Association leaders at a broad subset of schools that included a Jesuit University, a small liberal arts college, mid-sized private and public schools, and flagship research universities with the goal of creating a message that leaders from any type of student government association would be comfortable signing on to. You can read the letter here.

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What else do we do? 

In addition to the TOTV letter campaign, the Time Off to Vote coalition seeks to improve voter access on the college, corporate, state, and national levels by ensuring that every American has the time they need in order to vote. To this end, we educate students, organizations, and citizens on how to push for Time Off to Vote in their spheres of influence. We advocate for Time Off to Vote to be adopted as corporate and college policy and as government legislation, while also supporting complementary efforts to move Election Day to the weekend or make it a national holiday. 

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