Ready to vote in the U.S. 2020 elections?

September 22, 2020 is #NationalVoterRegistrationDay. Get registered so you can vote in the 2020 U.S. General Election! Then read and get inspired by @kdaigle‘s story of launching a software career by helping to run local elections.

Civic engagement is a powerful tool to drive change in the world, and it’s now more important than ever for the software development community to participate. Government policies impact developers and their communities in countless ways, including influencing what software is built, how it’s used, and who gets to build it.

In the United States, presidential elections are a time of peak civic engagement. This election season, GitHub is encouraging developers in the U.S., including our own employees, to register, vote, help run elections, and contribute to work around voting rights, election security, combating disinformation, and more to support the democratic process in the U.S.

We want to encourage anyone who can vote to do so

Even if you’re a regular voter, it’s worth planning ahead as COVID-19 safety precautions may have changed your voting procedures or timeline. Here are some helpful steps and resources:

• Register to vote
• Double check your registration
• Check the early voting calendar by state
• Request a mail-in ballot
• Find the nearest polling place 
• Learn more about what is on your upcoming ballot

Consider volunteering as a poll worker in your local community

Today is National Poll Worker Recruitment Day in the U.S. 🇺🇸 Citizen poll workers and election officials play a big role in ensuring accessible, free, and fair elections. Counties and states are always looking for help—even more so this year with COVID-19. Additionally, more technology is introduced at the polls every year. More technically-literate staff, such as software developers, can help keep elections on track, move smoothly, and ensure your neighbors can exercise their right to vote. Working at an election within your local community is an impactful way to support voting access, and we encourage everyone to do so if you are able.

Find how to be a poll worker at HelpAmericaVote.gov or Power the Polls.

How GitHub is encouraging employee civic engagement

GitHub continues to actively support civic engagement by employees, wherever they are in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world. We encourage employees to take a paid half day off, or more if needed, to vote or take part in other civic engagement activities. GitHub has signed onto the Time to Vote initiative alongside 700 other companies to ensure employees don’t have to choose between earning a paycheck and voting.

We also encourage employees to help fill the need for poll workers on election day in the U.S. As part of this, GitHub’s Social Impact team will donate $250 on behalf of any employee that volunteers on election day to a non-profit of their choice. We’ve signed onto the Civic Alliance Election Day of Service initiative to collectively identify 250,000 new poll workers in support of a safe and secure U.S. election this November.

Key upcoming dates:

• September 12 – National Day of Civic Hacking
• September 18 – National Black Voter Day
• September 22 – National Voter Registration Day
• October 24 – Vote Early Day
• November 3 – Election day

Please join us and help spread the word about voting to your fellow developers and communities in the U.S. through November and beyond. And wherever you are in the world, happy civic hacking!

Written by

Mike Linksvayer

@mlinksva

Head of Developer Policy