Hatch Act Rules - rules that regulate the actions of federal employees, as published by the US Merit Systems Protection Board. According to the Hatch Act rules, federal employees may engage in most political activities, including voting, campaigning in nonpartisan elections, wearing political buttons and contributing money to political campaigns. Among the political activities in which federal employees may not engage are: running for public office in partisan elections; campaigning for candidates in partisan elections; collecting money or selling tickets to political fundraising events; distributing campaign materials in a partisan election; organizing or managing a political rally or meeting; or working to register voters for only one party. Although these rules apply to almost all federal employees, they are stricter for military personnel.