Does the Hatch Act apply to you? Election season do’s and don’ts

With the fall season comes football, pumpkin-flavored everything and Election Day. Federal employees may be tempted to get involved by making political donations, campaigning for a candidate, attending rallies or just chatting about politics with co-workers.

Federal civilian employees need to be careful, however, not to run afoul of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity while on the job, even for those working remotely. How severely it restricts activities depends on your job. In the first installment of our election ethics series, we will break down how federal employees are grouped with respect to the Hatch Act. Future pieces will look more closely at what employees within each group can and can’t do.