EEOC Implementation Plan on Executive Order 14019: Promoting Access to Voting

Developed pursuant to Executive Order 14019, Promoting Access to Voting, issued on March 7, 2021, this Implementation Plan sets forth how the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) plans to promote voter registration and voter participation, consistent with the Hatch Act and any other applicable laws, regulations, and legal authorities.

A. Executive Order 14019 Overview

Executive Order 14019, Promoting Access to Voting, states the Administration’s policy to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.  The Executive Order also asserts the Federal Government’s responsibility to expand access to, and education about, voter registration and election information, and to combat misinformation, to enable all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy. 

Describing the right to vote as “fundamental” and as “the foundation of American democracy,” the Executive Order notes the challenges encountered by many Americans who seek to exercise that right, including people of color, individuals with limited English proficiency, people with disabilities, members of the military serving overseas, and other American citizens living abroad.  The Executive Order identifies several legal authorities that protect and promote the right to vote, including the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

B. The Mission of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The EEOC is responsible for enforcing the federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information (including family medical history).  The laws enforced by the EEOC also prohibit harassment and retaliation.  The EEOC’s mission is to prevent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and advance equal opportunity for all in the workplace.  The EEOC prioritizes and utilizes agency resources to achieve this important mandate.

C. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Plan to Implement Executive Order 14019

The EEOC will take a number of actions to implement Executive Order 14019.  Specifically, the EEOC will make relevant printed material (including in languages other than English, if available) available in field office intake waiting rooms.  These printed materials also will be made available during outreach events open to the general public.  The EEOC will create an EEOC voting resource landing page to the agency’s external and internal websites that will link to Vote.gov and to USA.gov’s “Voting and Elections” page to share information with members of the public and EEOC staff about voter registration, applicable deadlines, the election process, and State voting resources.  A similar landing page will be created for EEOC employees on our intranet site with links to vote.gov and similar resources. 

The EEOC also will continue to share additional relevant information with agency employees.   For example, the EEOC has notified EEOC staff about the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the Federal Voting Assistance Program, and voting deadlines.  The EEOC will continue to share information about Federal Government policies granting employees leave to vote in Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial elections, and information about volunteering off-duty, in a personal capacity, to serve in permissible non-partisan roles, such as serving as non-partisan poll workers or non-partisan observers.  EEOC employees who request leave to train and serve in a personal capacity as a non-partisan election official to assist in voting and related procedures at polling stations shall be granted excused absence to the maximum extent possible, while accounting for their responsibilities and duties to carry out the EEOC’s mission.  EEOC managers will seek to accommodate such excused absence requests when they do not negatively impact critical Agency functions.

The EEOC takes its obligations under the Hatch Act seriously.  The EEOC is committed to complying with the Hatch Act and associated guidance issued by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, including by ensuring that agency staff are aware of and comply with the Hatch Act.  The EEOC will continue to advise all staff about their Hatch Act obligations, including by addressing Hatch Act information in staff ethics trainings, responding to Hatch Act inquiries by staff members, and performing any other duties to ensure legal compliance.

If requested by a State to be designated a voter registration agency, the EEOC’s Office of Field Programs and Office of Legal Counsel will determine whether the EEOC can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, agree to do so.  If the EEOC declines to consent to such a designation, the Chair of the EEOC will submit a written explanation to the President, consistent with Executive Order 14019.  Further, if the Chair of the EEOC accepts such a designation, the Chair will evaluate where and how the EEOC provides services that directly engage with the public and, to the greatest extent practicable and appropriate and consistent with applicable law for the agency to do so, formally notify the States in which the agency provides such services that it would agree to designation as a voter registration agency.

D. General Provisions

Nothing in this EEOC Implementation Plan shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect the authority granted by law to the EEOC or the Chair of the EEOC.  This Plan shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.  This Plan is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the EEOC, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.