Is Election Day a Federal Holiday in 2026?

The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter.

(a) The following are legal public holidays: New Year's Day, January 1. Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January. Washington's Birthday, the third Monday in February. Memorial Day, the last Monday in May. Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19. Independence Day, July 4. Labor Day, the first Monday in September. Columbus Day, the second Monday in October. Veterans Day, November 11. Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November. Christmas Day, December 25.

Consistent with Executive Order 14148 of January 20, 2025, OPM has rescinded two previous Biden Administration guidance memoranda, “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting” (CPM 2022-05, March 24, 2022) and “Access to Voting” (CPM 2024-18, August 29, 2024), which significantly departed from longstanding policy. Thus, agencies should return to the longstanding practice before the Biden Administration, under which the head of each agency (or his or her designee) has discretion to grant administrative leave for voting in limited circumstances in which there is no reasonable opportunity for an employee to vote outside of their regular work hours, and only to the extent that such time off does not interfere with agency operations. Such administrative leave should generally be limited to the hours required to vote and should generally not exceed three hours in length.

In addition, agencies should grant administrative leave for early voting on a scheduled workday only when (1) the employee will be unable to vote on the day of the election because of activities directly related to the agency’s mission (such as Temporary Duty (TDY) travel) and cannot vote by absentee ballot or by early voting on a nonworkday, or (2) early voting hours are the same as, or exceed, voting hours on the day of the election.

The revised regulations take effect on November 18, 2026.

Paragraph (b)(5) provides that administrative leave may not be used to cover service by poll workers or poll observers in connection with elections. OPM's current policies allow administrative leave to give employees a reasonable opportunity to vote on an election day (see Sec. 630.1403(c)(2)); however, OPM does not believe it is appropriate to use administrative leave for other election-related matters beyond facilitating an opportunity for an employee to vote.

Administrative leave may not be used to cover service by poll workers or poll observers in connection with elections, whether that service is partisan or nonpartisan, paid or unpaid. However, agencies may approve other available workforce flexibilities to allow employees to serve as poll workers or poll observers, such as annual leave, compensatory time off earned via overtime work, compensatory time off for travel, credit hours under a flexible work schedule, adjustment of working hours under a flexible work schedule, or leave without pay.