How can a company promote voting?

Danny Polovin was vacationing in Portugal this spring when he realized he needed to take action this November.

The owner of Mustard’s Last Stand, a Chicagostyle hot dog stand in Boulder and Denver, Polovin was taken aback by the level of civic engagement he saw overseas.

Why can’t we get that kind of turnout here, he thought.

So he decided to approach the Boulder Chamber of Commerce with an idea: Let’s get businesses involved in increasing voter participation. Facebook videos, frenchfry deals and paid timeoff plans were percolating in his mind.

That’s when things got confusing. Some of his grand ideas, he found, were against Colorado law.

Leading into the midterm elections, there has been a strong push from the business community — in Colorado and around the country — to increase voter turnout.

But as Polovin and other local business owners are finding out, there are some legal limits to what they can do to help.

Because it’s all a bit confusing, here’s a rundown of what businesses can and can’t do to encourage voter participation this election season.

No deals in exchange for voting

According to Suzanne Staiert, Colorado’s deputy secretary of state, a business “cannot offer anything of value for somebody to vote or refrain from voting” — even if it’s in a nonpartisan effort.

When in doubt, Staiert advises, businesses should avoid giving out free products or discounts for showing an “I voted” sticker or pledging to go to the polls.

Prosecutions for this type of offense, however, are almost unheard of, Staiert said. If someone were to be in violation, it would be handled by a district attorney’s office and police, not the secretary of state’s office, because it’s part of the criminal code.

But fear not, business leaders. There are still plenty of ways to get involved this election season.