Scheduling conflicts with school/work are the number one reasons Americans give for not voting in midterm elections. Most Americans are hourly employees, and don’t get paid time off to vote. The obvious solution would be to move Election Day to Saturday, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

So I need the founder community to step up and make Election Day a holiday at your companies by giving your staff 3-hours paid time off to vote, and I need you to actively encourage them to use it. And then I need you to sign up at ElectionDay.org to make this commitment public.

If your folks are salaried, no worries. You’re still going to actively encourage them to vote, and you’re going to declare Election Day a no meeting day. Or you’ll just open late that day, so everyone can vote in the morning.

Tech companies are influential. As tech goes, so will the rest of the country. So today it’s tech companies, and tomorrow (or 2020) it’s every big box retailer giving all of their employees 3 hours paid time off to vote.

You'll be in good company when you sign on. YC was either the first or second company to sign on (thanks for that, Kat, Adora, Sam, and Michael), and a mess of YC founders have followed suit.

Thanks, and happy voting.