Facebook Joins List Of Companies Paying Employees For Election Day Contributions

Facebook (FB) joins several other companies in giving its employees time off to volunteer as poll workers during the election.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement on Friday in a Facebook post that also outlined the strategies the social media platform would be taking to promote the recruitment of poll workers across the U.S.

With the election set for Nov. 3, many polling locations are experiencing worker shortages, which could threaten their ability to open, hampering voting efforts. Officials in a number of key battleground states have told ABC News that they are still short thousands of poll workers, which without these volunteers, could force some polling locations to close.

According to Zuckerberg, all Facebook users over the age of 18 will start to see messages at the top of their news feed, promoting volunteer poll worker opportunities in their area as a way to lessen the shortage.

"We're less than two months away from the U.S. elections, and we are seeing a massive shortage of poll workers to staff voting stations," Zuckerberg said on Facebook. "It is estimated that almost half a million poll workers will be needed this year -- especially due to the ongoing COVID pandemic."

Facebook joins Old Navy, Tory Burch, Target, Gap, and Warby Parker in allowing their employees time off to work the polls in November, ABC News said. The five retailers will pay their workers for eight hours of work to volunteer at the polls.

Also, enforcing the importance of the election is Patagonia and Blue Apron, which have both announced that they will close down on Election Day to allow their employees time off to vote and volunteer as poll workers while Uber has also made the day a paid holiday, ABC News said.

Others that have announced time off for workers during the election include Walmart, Coca-Cola, Twitter, Cisco, Levi’s, Lyft, and Apple.