Right to Vote without Employer Interference or Threat of Discharge

posted by Neil Klingshirn  |  Aug 31, 2009 1:54 PM [EST]  |  applies to Ohio

Ohio's Right to Vote law states:

No employer, his officer or agent, shall

1. discharge or threaten to discharge an elector for taking a reasonable amount of time to vote on election day; or 
2. require or order an elector to accompany him to a voting place upon such day; or
   
3. refuse to permit such elector to serve as an election official on any registration or election day; or
   
4. indirectly use any force or restraint or threaten to inflict any injury, harm, or loss;
   
5. or in any other manner practice intimidation in order to induce or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting for or against any person or question or issue submitted to the voters.

Ohio Revised Code Section 3599.06.Employers who violate Ohio's Right to Vote law "shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars."  Section 3599.06 may be a basis for an Ohio public policy termination claim. That is, because Section 3599.06's penalty may not be sufficient to deter an employer violation, and because the penalty does nothing to repair the damage to an employee discharged in violation of Ohio's Right to Vote law, an employee may be able to bring a common law claim for a public policy wrongful discharge claim.

External Links

• Ohio Revised Code Section 3599.06.

posted by Neil Klingshirn  |  Aug 31, 2009 1:54 PM [EST]  |  applies to Ohio