About us

The Vote Hour sprung (as many things do at Google) from some very interesting research. After reading a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, a Googler noticed that in the 2004 Presidential election, the NUMBER ONE reason that registered voters didn't make it out to the polls to vote was because they were "too busy" or had conflicting work schedules.

So this person asked himself, 'What if bosses around the country encouraged their employees to take an hour off to go vote? Would employees feel relaxed enough, even in this down economy, to leave work behind and go vote?'

It seemed logical that if nothing else, getting "permission" from your boss to take an hour off would take one more excuse off the table. So this Googler sent an email to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc., who volunteered to record a message of support and encouraged some fellow CEOs to join him... and The Vote Hour was born.

It's our hope that the participation of these business leaders, and their encouragement and friendly pressure, will help improve voter turnout on election day. If you'd like to participate as a business leader, please click here to join. If you're an employee and would like to encourage your boss to join, click here to send a message of encouragement.