Voting is yours. Not theirs.
Your employer can encourage you to vote. They cannot tell you how to vote. Texas law draws a clear line between those two things.
What the law says
Texas Election Code, Section 276.001, makes it a third-degree felony to retaliate against a voter who has voted for or against a candidate, or who has refused to reveal how they voted. For employers specifically, the statute prohibits subjecting or threatening to subject an employee to a loss or reduction of wages or another benefit of employment based on how they voted.
A person commits an offense if, in retaliation against a voter who has voted for or against a candidate or measure or a voter who has refused to reveal how the voter voted, the person knowingly, with respect to a voter over whom the person has authority in the scope of employment, subjects or threatens to subject the voter to a loss or reduction of wages or another benefit of employment.
Texas Election Code § 276.001
Section 276.001 is a criminal statute, not an administrative one. There is no government agency that accepts complaints for this specific violation. Enforcement requires a criminal investigation by the county or district attorney, or the Texas Attorney General. As of April 2026, no reported prosecution under 276.001 has ever occurred in Texas. The law exists. It has never been used. That does not mean the conduct it describes is acceptable. It means the enforcement path is narrow and untested.
Where the line is
Courts and election regulators look at the totality of the communication. A single "go vote" email is fine. A pattern of communications that consistently direct employees toward specific candidates, parties, or endorsements is different. Context matters.
- Legal: "Don't forget to vote Tuesday." General civic encouragement with no directional pressure.
- Legal: Providing paid time off to vote, as required by Texas law for employees who don't have two consecutive non-working hours while polls are open.
- Gets complicated: Sending employees links to specific endorsement lists, especially if the framing implies the company's interests align with those endorsements.
- Problematic: Suggesting that voting a certain way protects the company, its contracts, or employees' jobs. That's not civic engagement. That's leverage.
One email might not cross the line. The same type of email, sent before every election cycle, consistently linking to the same partisan endorsements, with language tying those endorsements to the company's business interests? That's a pattern. Patterns get scrutinized differently than isolated incidents.
What you can do
- Save the communications. Screenshots, forwarded copies to personal email, whatever works. Do it on your own device. See how to document safely.
- Talk to coworkers. Ask if they noticed it too. If multiple people independently identified the same pattern, that's relevant. These conversations are protected under the NLRA.
- Know the enforcement path. Section 276.001 is a criminal statute. There is no administrative complaint form. If you believe the law was violated, the options are: filing a report with the Texas Secretary of State (who can refer matters to the Attorney General), or presenting sworn affidavits to the Travis County District Attorney. Under Election Code 273.001, if two or more registered voters present sworn affidavits alleging criminal conduct in connection with an election, the DA is required to investigate.
A note about government contractors
If your employer holds government contracts, the optics of voting pressure change. An employer that ties voting behavior to the security of government contracts is telling employees that their jobs depend on election outcomes. Whether or not that meets the criminal standard of 276.001, it raises questions that the agencies awarding those contracts may find relevant.
What the handbook says about voting
The handbook has a voting leave policy. One sentence. It tells employees they can take time off to vote if they don't have enough time outside working hours.
That's the entire policy. It covers when you can leave the office. It says nothing about what the employer can say to you about how to vote. Nothing about endorsement emails. Nothing about linking company interests to election outcomes.
They wrote the rules. Just not for themselves.
If they actually retaliate over your vote
The pattern of voting emails and meetings is concerning. But 276.001 specifically covers what happens after. If you are fired, demoted, denied a raise, or subjected to any loss of wages or benefits because of how you voted or because you refused to tell them how you voted, that is the conduct this statute was written for. Third-degree felony. Two to ten years.
If that happens to you, the enforcement path is the Travis County District Attorney. Under Election Code 273.001, if two or more registered voters present sworn affidavits alleging criminal conduct in connection with an election, the DA is required to investigate. The Texas Attorney General also has concurrent jurisdiction.
That is also not your only option. Retaliation for how you voted may overlap with other protections. If the retaliation intersects with a protected category under Title VII (race, sex, religion, national origin), the EEOC handles that. If it intersects with protected concerted activity under the NLRA (discussing working conditions, including political pressure at work), the NLRB handles that. These protections layer. Document everything and consult an employment attorney.