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By Amanda Greenwood
Associate News Editor
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As millions of Americans head to the polls on Tuesday for the 2026 midterm elections, some will have Election Day off while others may be entitled to time off to vote or will have to fit it around their working day.
While Election Day isn’t one of the federal holidays established under federal law, several states do recognize it as a state or legal holiday, though that doesn't necessarily mean all employees get the day off.
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Which States Observe Election Day As an Official Holiday?
Official 2026 calendars or state laws confirm that the following states observe Election Day as a state or legal holiday:
State Holiday
Legal Holiday
What’s the Difference Between a State and a Legal Holiday?
A state holiday generally means a day that the state government officially observes, often giving eligible state employees the day off and closing some state offices.
A legal holiday is a day formally designated as a holiday in state law. What that designation means varies from state to state, and it doesn’t necessarily mean all government offices, schools, or private businesses must close, or that all workers get the day off. For example, even though Illinois observes Election Day as a State Holiday, it also has a voting-leave law requiring qualifying employees who are working to be given time to cast their ballot.
Which States Require Time Off to Vote?
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A state doesn’t have to make Election Day a holiday to protect an employee's ability to vote.
According to Ballotpedia, 28 states and the District of Columbia require employers to grant employees some form of time off to vote.
However, the rules vary by state. In some states including Washington, D.C., eligible workers get paid time off to vote, while others provide unpaid time off. How much time workers get and who qualifies also varies by state.
Ballotpedia data shows that the states with voting-leave requirements are:
- Alabama: Eligible employees can get one hour of unpaid leave to vote.
- Alaska: Employees get paid leave to visit their polling station if they don't have enough time to vote outside of work hours.
- Arizona: Employees can get paid leave at the start or end of their shift to give them three consecutive hours to vote while polls are open.
- Arkansas: Employees can get time off to vote, but they need to take it as unpaid leave.
- California: Employees can get up to two hours of paid leave if they don’t have enough time to vote outside working hours. The time off must be taken at the start or end of their shift.
- Colorado: Employees can get up to two hours off, paid, to vote, unless they already have at least three consecutive hours outside work while voting centers are open.
- Georgia: Workers can get up to two unpaid hours off to vote, either on Election Day or during early voting.
- Illinois: Although Election Day is observed as a state holiday, workers get up to two hours of paid leave if they have less than two hours to vote before or after their shift.
- Iowa: Employees can take enough time off at the start or end of their shift to give them two consecutive hours of paid leave to vote while polls are open.
- Kansas: Workers can get up to two hours off as paid leave to vote, but if they already have some time before or after work while polls are open, they only get enough additional time to make up two hours.
- Kentucky: Employees can get up to four hours off, unpaid, to vote.
- Maryland: Up to two hours of paid leave is given to vote if workers don’t already have two consecutive hours outside work while polls are open.
- Massachusetts: Workers can get up to two hours of unpaid leave to vote, but this only applies to employees in manufacturing, mechanical, or retail jobs, and it must be taken within two hours after polls open.
- Minnesota: Voters can take as much paid time as they need to vote either on Election Day or during early voting.
- Missouri: Workers can get up to three paid hours off to vote, unless they already have three consecutive hours outside of work while the polls are open.
- Nebraska: Workers can take enough paid time off to give them two consecutive hours to vote while polls are open
- Nevada: Employees can get up to three paid hours off to vote if they can’t vote before or after work. The amount of time they get also depends on how far away they are from their polling station.
- New Mexico: Workers can get up to two paid hours off to vote, unless they already have enough time to vote before or after work.
- New York: People can get up to two paid hours off to vote if they don’t have four consecutive hours outside work to do it.
- Ohio: Workers can take reasonable time off to vote, but it will be classified as unpaid leave.
- Oklahoma: Workers can get up to two paid hours off to vote, unless they already have at least three hours to vote before or after work.
- South Dakota: Up to two hours of paid leave is given to workers who don’t have two consecutive hours outside of their work hours to vote.
- Tennessee: Workers can get up to three hours of paid leave to vote, unless they already have at least three hours to vote before or after work.
- Texas: Workers can get paid leave to vote unless they already have two consecutive hours outside work while polls are open.
- Utah: Voters can get up to two paid hours off to vote, unless they already have at least three hours outside work while polls are open.
- West Virginia: Workers can get up to three hours of paid leave to vote, but if they already have at least three hours outside of work while the polls are open, they might lose pay for the additional time taken off to vote.
- Wisconsin: Employees get up to three hours of unpaid leave to vote.
- Wyoming: Workers can get up to one paid hour off to vote, unless they already have at least three consecutive hours outside work while polls are open.
- Washington, D.C.: Workers can get up to two hours of paid leave to vote.
Are Post Offices Closed on Election Day?
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No, Election Day isn’t a federal postal holiday.
In fact, the U.S. Postal Service is undertaking additional operations around the election. USPS said it would use "extraordinary measures" nationwide through November 3 to accelerate identifiable ballot mail, including extra deliveries and collections, special pickups and localized ballot transportation.
Are Colleges Closed on Election Day?
Like with the post offices, there’s no nationwide rule requiring colleges and universities to close on Election Day.
Whether classes are canceled depends on the state, institution, and its academic calendar. Colleges in states that recognize Election Day as a holiday could have different arrangements, and individual institutions can choose to cancel classes or remain open.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
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