Local News

Boston is using Fenway Park as an early voting site. Here’s what you need to know.

"I’m grateful for how the Red Sox have stepped forward to help our city during this crisis.”

By Nik DeCosta-Klipa

September 24, 2020

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The Boston Red Sox may be out of the MLB playoff picture this season, but Fenway Park won’t be entirely empty this October.

The Boston Election Commission approved a plan Thursday to use the historic ballpark as one of the city’s early voting sites for the general election on Oct. 17 and 18. According to the plan, any registered voter who lives in Boston will be able to cast their ballot at Fenway Park during those two days.

“Voting is one of the best ways to support and champion the issues and policies we value and what better way for the Red Sox to help with that effort than to open up our ballpark for Boston residents to cast their early ballots,” Sam Kennedy, the team’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

How will it work?

Fenway Park will be open to voters from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on those two days, which is the first weekend of the Oct. 17-30 statewide early voting period in Massachusetts ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Voters will be able to enter the park using the Gate A entrance, located on Jersey Street, behind the third-baseline stands. According to a Red Sox spokesperson, actual voting will take place in the concourse area.

Team officials said that safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will be in place, and all voters will be asked to keep a distance from each other and wear a face covering at all times while inside the ballpark. Like at other early voting sites, poll workers will also receive face shields, face masks, gloves, disinfectant wipes, disinfectant spray, and hand sanitizer.

Officials also stressed that early voting at Fenway Park is for Boston residents only; voters who reside outside of the city limits will not be permitted to vote at the ballpark. A full list of early-voting locations and schedules for the other 370 cities and towns in Massachusetts will be posted online by Oct. 9.

Early voting in Boston

Fenway Park is hardly the only option for Boston residents who want to vote early.

The stadium is just one of 10 early voting locations scattered across Boston that city officials are making available for the Oct. 17-18 weekend. The city will use a different set of 10 early sites for the Oct. 24-25 weekend. And for the 10 weekdays during the 14-day early voting period, Boston City Hall will serve as the sole early voting site for Boston residents.

Boston residents who requested to vote by mail can also drop off their ballots in person at any early voting location, including Fenway Park, during their respective polling hours. The city is also making 17 dropbox locations available seven days a week for Boston voters to return mail-in ballots up until 8 p.m. on the Nov. 3 election day.

A map of all early voting and dropbox locations is available on the city’s website.

A growing trend

The Red Sox appear to be the third MLB team to volunteer their ballpark as a voting location.

Similar to Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was announced last month as a site for several days of early voting and for the Nov. 3 election. Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., is also set to serve as an Election Day polling location.

And following recent protests against racial injustice, more than 20 NBA arenas have signed up to be used as a voting site in some form this fall

The expansion of both mail-in and early voting — in Massachusetts and across the country — also comes as states have worked to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not hamper turnout in the 2020 elections. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said Thursday that making voting “safe, accessible, and reliable” was “paramount” to that effort.

“We have seen in past years the success of early voting, and with vote-by-mail and in-person voting on Election Day, we are offering an array of options for voters to cast their ballots safely in the midst of COVID-19,” Walsh said. “I’m grateful for how the Red Sox have stepped forward to help our city during this crisis.”