Stay Cool
Daniella Ballou-Aares (MBA 2001), CEO of the Leadership Now Project, believes that "protecting the legitimacy of November's election is, at its core, about preserving American democracy.” Ballou-Aares convened a group of 50 business leaders (including Able Partners founding partner Lisa Blau (MBA 2001), Baupost CEO Seth Klarman (MBA 1982), Standard Hotels CEO Amar Lalvani (MBA 2001), General Assembly CEO Lisa Lewin (MBA 2003), and Jeffrey C. Walker (MBA 1981), among other HBS graduates) who issued a statement supporting three key principles regarding the election: every vote should be counted, the media should avoid calling the election prematurely, and business leaders should promote patience, civility, security, and accuracy. “We should assume that if we get into a bad situation, there are many more who are willing to come out with concerns that our democracy is critical,” Ballou-Aares told the Financial Times. HBS Professor Michael Porter, an advisor to Leadership Now who also signed the letter, noted that “business leaders need to throw their support [behind] democratic processes at a time when public tensions have risen.” As the New York Times put it, “Tech, finance, media, and other executives are calling on Americans to stay cool during a heated election season.”

March to the Polls
“2020 is not canceled. It’s the year we woke up,” according to the March to the Polls (M2P), a grassroots marketing effort to encourage millennials to vote on Nov. 3. “We see civic engagement as an obligation and have found great solace in knowing that we’re working together to energize our spheres of influence,” said Chelsea Celistan (MBA 2020), who collaborated with a dozen classmates to launch the movement. “We connected as we were graduating into a time of great unrest in our country and wanted to leverage our abilities to work towards solutions. What started as purely grassroots networking with peers has led to thousands of followers on Instagram, over 175 people committing to be poll workers, many hundreds of people reading our weekly newsletters, and countless important conversations.” M2P notes that “millennials make up nearly one third of the voting electorate, yet we historically haven’t pulled our weight. Join us on a journey of learning, doing, and growing together.”

Giving Employees Time to Vote
Neil Malik (MBA 1998), managing partner and founder of K1 Investment Management, is leading an effort in his investment firm to give time off for voting for all K1 employees and over 5,000 portfolio company employees. K1 recently announced election day as a paid holiday on LinkedIn. “People should not have to choose between their paycheck and their right to vote,” the post reads. “We believe in the power of democracy and that our communities need to do more to help citizens exercise their constitutional right to build a more free, equitable, and just society.”

“The right to vote is not enshrined in our constitution. It is left up to the states,” observes Malik. “Confidence in our government is at a 60-year low, and many people are looking to business to solve the problems facing our society.” Malik believes making election day a holiday is a way for businesses to allow their employees to get involved—by voting and/or volunteering. “The way to increase trust in the system is to increase voter participation,” says Malik, who sees voting as “the most critical civic responsibility in our lifetime.”

Bloomberg Helps Florida Felons Regain Voting Rights
Mike Bloomberg (MBA 1966) was part of a group that helped raise $20 million to help the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) “pay the fines and fees of tens of thousands of returning citizens so they will be eligible to register to vote and participate in this November’s Election,” according to a release on the organization’s website. "The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be denied that right," a Bloomberg spokesperson told Axios.

Promoting a “Day for Democracy”
In August, Peter Palandjian (MBA 1993) launched “Day for Democracy,” a nonpartisan effort to encourage businesses to give their employees time off to vote. “There is no more important or patriotic act than voting,” said Palandjian, Chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, in a press release announcing the initiative. “I’ve always been troubled by routine low turnout in U.S. elections and wanted to find a way to have a positive effect on increasing voter participation. As a CEO, I recognize that I can help by removing barriers for my own employees and encouraging others to do the same. We can all do better, and this non-partisan effort is an important first step.” Other alumni involved in “Day for Democracy” include Tim Buckley (MBA 1996) Chairman and CEO of Vanguard Group; Peter Slavin (MBA 1990) President, Massachusetts General Hospital; and Jonathan Bush (MBA 1997) Executive Chairman at Firefly Health.

Supporting Election Operations
Seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic could have drastic consequences on the 2020 US election, Laxmi Wordham (MBA 2001), a founding member of Leadership Now, formed the Election Support Corps, a partnership between Leadership Now and the National Vote at Home Institute (VAH) to support the safety and security of the 2020 election cycle. Working with a team of MBA fellows, the Election Support Corps has built tools to provide direct operational support to election officials, tracked misinformation campaigns that undermine the integrity of US elections, and worked to fill the gap in poll workers and other election resources. (More information can be found on the VAH website.) The team also created a user-friendly, practical “5 Actions Guide" for business leaders to support the election with a week-by-week communications toolkit they can use to message employees and customers. “The pandemic is creating unprecedented operational challenges to our country’s ability to administer a successful, legitimate election in November,” says Wordham. “By promoting voter engagement, business leaders can demonstrate civic-minded leadership and encourage action across industries.”

Helping Companies Promote Safe Voting
The nonprofit, nonpartisan Business for America initiative recently released a report that detailed 17 different ways that companies can help American vote safely. David Gilmour (MBA 1984), Business for America’s Director of Corporate Civic Responsibility (and Managing Director of Blyth Capital Partners) noted in a December Medium post that “[a] public corporate commitment to supporting the health of democracy does not align the company with a liberal or conservative agenda. It is simply an expression of confidence and trust in people—people just like its own employees and customers.”

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