Employers Move Voter Turnout 5.8 Points, New 30-Million-Person Study Finds

Switching from an employer at the 25th percentile of civic engagement to one at the 75th makes a worker 5.8 percentage points more likely to vote. That finding comes from new research linking LinkedIn employment records to voter files, and it dwarfed what campaigns buy with hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising each cycle.

The study, published on SSRN, covered 30 million workers across 377,000 U.S. employers. Researchers at the University of Michigan, Harvard, Columbia, and Maryland ran the analysis. Their core result: a person's workplace is decisive in whether they vote.

The research offers a sharp contrast with traditional campaign spending. Campaign and PAC leaders pour money into TV and social media advertising, canvassing, phone banks, and mailers every election cycle, the authors note. Randomized trials suggest that even a well-executed canvass moves turnout by a point or two at most.

To rule out selection bias — the possibility that civically minded people simply pick civically minded employers — the researchers tracked 8 million people who changed jobs. Workers who moved to a higher-scoring employer became 3.5 percentage points more likely to vote. The 25th-to-75th percentile move produced the 5.8-point gain. The effects held across political affiliations.

Their conclusion is blunt: "Employers have enormous influence over whether or not their employees vote."

How much does a turnout program actually cost?

According to the authors — executives who run Weyco and Goodmans — very little. At Weyco, the program runs on a communications calendar: employees are urged to make a voting plan several weeks before an election, notified when early voting opens, and reminded the week before Election Day and again on the day itself. The company offers paid leave for voting or poll-worker duty, arranges rides for anyone who needs one, and brings voter registration assistance into the building.

At Goodmans, the company partnered with Power the Polls to recruit employees as poll workers. Participants get a small stipend and a paid day off.

"These programs are simple to administer and cost little," the authors write. "Neither requires an outside consultant or a new department." Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy publishes a civic toolkit with a communications timeline and templates any company can adapt, and both authors developed their plans alongside other executives through the Leadership Now Project. The broader Civic Alliance playbook fits in one line: give people time to vote, remind them when, and connect them to local election officials.

Why is poll-worker recruitment urgent this fall?

Nearly half of local election jurisdictions had trouble recruiting enough workers for the 2024 general election, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. This fall, Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Maricopa County face shortages, along with jurisdictions in Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, and many more. Short-staffed polls mean longer lines and more friction for voters.

Does this drag CEOs into partisan politics?

No — and the authors frame that as the point. Employers never need to ask employees about political preferences or specific candidates, and leaders don't have to take a political position or risk a news cycle. The programs stay entirely neutral on candidates while still moving participation.

The effects also outlast any single election. The research suggests voting is habit-forming: employees keep voting even after they leave, and their family members vote more too. The employer impact is largest in primaries — the contests where extra turnout changes outcomes most.

The business case, as the authors tell it: higher participation builds trust in democracy, and that trust underwrites the stability companies need to plan, invest, and hire. Most corporate leaders don't know where their company sits on the turnout distribution — and the authors argue they now have the data to find out.