Walmart Drive = Good Corporate Citizenship

Walmart Drive
Originally uploaded by jonesdlwa.

From Morning News Beat:

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart “will distribute packets to its more than 1.3 million U.S. employees next week urging them to register to vote and study political issues -- but not directing them how to vote.” The story notes that “the packets include state-specific voter-registration forms and a letter from Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott. The packet also includes instructions from the League of Women Voters to help voters determine the right poll to visit and to remember to bring their identification, among other things.”

Lee Culpepper, Wal-Mart's vice president of federal government affairs, describes the move as “completely nonpartisan,” though he notes that the company is trying to “correct the record” whenever management feels the company and its initiatives are described inaccurately by politicians.

According to the Journal, “While stopping short of saying it will attempt to sway its employees' votes, Wal-Mart did take the opportunity to outline its clout for would-be office seekers. In a release announcing the effort, Wal-Mart notes that it employs ‘a significant number of associates in states that play pivotal roles in national elections.’ Those include 94,163 Wal-Mart employees in Florida; 49,724 in Ohio; 47,904 in Pennsylvania; 17,273 in Iowa; and 7,933 in New Hampshire.”
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Maybe we can privatize-outsource elections...

Index Keywords: Growth-Machine; civic-engagement