http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11612-2004Mar20.htmlA growing number of large U.S. corporations are offering services to register their employees to vote and mounting get-to-the-polls drives that advocates hope will swell the ranks of pro-business voters this election year.
Companies portray the voter push as a nonpartisan employee benefit. But Republicans see it as a boon to their hopes of maintaining control of the House and Senate and reelecting President Bush. And Democrats, who have long benefited from union-led get-out-the-vote campaigns, are worried that business finally has developed a vigorous counterpunch.
During the elections of 2000 and 2002, District-based industry groups launched pilot programs to determine whether such techniques would encourage pro-business voting or turn off workers. Polling afterward demonstrated that most employees welcomed their companies' involvement as long as it was done with a light touch. Firms also saw evidence that pro-business voting increased.
As a result, the number of companies that provide voter registration and other election-oriented services is expanding, with a special emphasis on voting via absentee ballot.
Of the 150 companies that belong to the Business Roundtable, an organization that represents the chief executives of the nation's largest corporations, 99 are participating in the voter registration program this year, a Business Roundtable spokeswoman says. Two years ago, only 27 Business Roundtable companies took part. A majority of the Association Committee of 100, a group that comprises the biggest trade associations in the country, are also operating versions of the program.
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