Voting Leave Requirements in Alaska
At a glance
| Governing law | Alaska Stat. § 15.15.100 |
|---|---|
| Eligible workers and elections | A qualified voter who lacks sufficient time outside working hours to vote at a state election (§ 15.15.100) |
| Outside-work-hours test | Deemed to have sufficient time if 2 consecutive hours to vote either before the shift or after it while the polls are open (§ 15.15.100) |
| Time-off amount | As much working time as will enable voting; no fixed maximum stated (§ 15.15.100) |
| Paid or unpaid | Without loss of pay (§ 15.15.100) |
| When leave is taken | Statute is silent on who chooses the window or which part of the shift (§ 15.15.100) |
| Employee notice and employer posting | No employee-notice or employer-posting duty in § 15.15.100 |
| Protection and penalties | The section grants the paid-time right but states no penalty, private remedy, or anti-retaliation clause of its own (§ 15.15.100) |
Enough paid time, unless you have a two-hour window
Alaska frames the right around sufficiency rather than a fixed number of hours. A qualified voter who "does not have sufficient time outside working hours within which to vote at a state election" may take off "as much working time as will enable voting," and that time is without loss of pay. The amount is whatever the employee genuinely needs, not a set one or two hours.
The sufficiency question has a bright-line answer. An employee who has two consecutive hours to vote — either between the polls opening and the start of the shift, or between the end of the shift and the polls closing — "shall be considered to have sufficient time" and gets no leave. Only an employee who lacks that two-consecutive-hour window qualifies.
A state-election right
The statute ties the right to "a state election." It is written for Alaska's own elections rather than framed as a universal rule for every local contest, so read the covered-election scope with that wording in mind.
What trips people up
Because the entitlement is "as much working time as will enable voting," there is no two-hour cap to point to; the leave is measured by need once the two-hour sufficiency test is failed. That cuts both ways: an employee with a clear two-hour off-duty window during polling hours has no right at all, while an employee whose shift blankets the polling day may be entitled to more than a token hour.
Section 15.15.100 also says nothing about advance notice, a posted notice, or a penalty for a violation. It grants the paid-time right and defines when it applies, and stops there.
Common questions
How much time do I get?
As much working time as you need to vote, once your outside-work time is counted — there is no fixed cap. It is paid.
When do I not qualify?
When you have two consecutive hours to vote either before your shift starts or after it ends, while the polls are open.
Is the time paid?
Yes. Qualifying voting time is "without loss of pay."
Does the statute cover local elections?
Its text speaks to a "state election." Local-election time off is not addressed by this section.
Statutes and sources
- Alaska Stat. § 15.15.100: the paid-time-to-vote right at a state election and the two-consecutive-hour sufficiency test — 2025 Alaska Statutes text (accessed July 13, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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