As the presidential election heats up, Americans are bombarded left and right with unwanted advice on their voting habits by co-workers, friends, and family members.

However, it’s something entirely different when your company’s CEO repeatedly urges you to vote a particular way.

Arthur L. Allen, the CEO and president of ASG Software Solutions in Naples, Fla., reportedly sent his U.S.-based employees an email asking each of them not only to vote for Mitt Romney in the presidential election, but also to donate as much as $2,500 to the Romney campaign. The company is believed to have a head count of 1,300-plus.

Allen sent the email on Aug. 27, according to MSNBC. This was the day the Republican National Convention was originally scheduled to begin in Tampa, Fla.

In his email, Allen encouraged “everyone to go to the Romney for President website and contribute as much as you can to his campaign for president, up to the maximum of $2,500.00 per person,” MSNBC reported.

The email makes clear that Allen believes a Romney presidency would be beneficial for ASG Software Solutions and its employees, with Allen implying that an Obama win would only hurt the company’s chances at success.

In a subsequent email, Allen spelled out this belief explicitly, MSNBC said, as he wrote, “If we fail as a nation to make the right choice on November 6th, and we lose our independence as a company, I don’t want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that will most likely come.”

ASG Software Solutions “is still struggling, even after four years,” Allen wrote his Aug. 27 email. The company has been valued at $375 million by Forbes magazine, according to MSNBC.

Allen later sent another email to employees, asking them to defer “some or all” of their salaries until sometime in December, so that ASG could afford to make an interest payment of $15 million on an outstanding loan. In this email, Allen wrote, “Even though our forecasts show that we will have the money to make the interest payment, I would like to have a built-in cushion.” Allen noted the company would add 5 percent to the deferred salaries.

The full text of the Aug. 27 email reads as follows, MSNBC reported:

“To all ASG domestic employees,

"This coming Monday, Mitt Romney will be officially nominated as the Republican Presidential candidate. I am encouraging everyone to go to the Romney for President web site and contribute as much as you can to his campaign for President, up to the maximum of $2500.00 per person. I am also encouraging you to contact all of your friends and relatives and ask them to support Romney and to go to the polls and vote on election day.

"ASG, like many companies, is still struggling, even after 4 years. You probably heard that we tripped a bank leverage covenant on June 30th, and now must go through yet another round of unfavorable treatment by our lenders. Many of our domestic employees are still on the 4 day work week. Many of our customers are waiting until they see the results of the election before beginning to invest again. We need to elect a fiscally conservative President and Vice-President and stop this ridiculous government spending. I believe that Romney and Ryan can put us back on the path to sanity, but even then it is not going to be painless for our country and ASG.

"Please help ASG and yourself by contributing to the Romney/Ryan campaign.

"Mr. Allen”

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