Duplicating the excitement of early voting in the September Primary Elections, more than 2,000 voters came out last Saturday and Sunday to the Copley Square library for the downtown neighborhood’s only early voting opportunity – logging more than 10 percent of the total early votes on either day citywide.
Early voting has been a new addition to the last several elections, but it has been immensely popular this year citywide and in the neighborhoods due to the desire to spread out and not wait in long lines on Election Day providing greater risk for COVID-19.
Of course, on the ballot for the Nov. 3 General Election is the hotly contested presidential election – which drove turnout even higher.
The following are the turnout totals at Copley Square last weekend, compared to citywide turnout on the same day.
•Saturday, October 24 at Copley Square Library: 1,204 out of 9,303 citywide that day.
•Sunday, October 25 at Harvard/Kent School: 1,097 out of 7,927 citywide that day.
Overall, since early voting started on Oct. 17, there have been 43,910 votes cast as of Monday, Oct. 26. The early-voting period for the Nov. 3 General Election will end on Friday, Oct. 30.
For those who missed the Copley Square dates, there is still an opportunity to vote in person at the City Hall early-vote polling place.
The dates and times for City Hall voting are:
•Thursday, Oct. 29, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
•Friday, Oct. 30, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Polling places in the Back Bay, South End, Bay Village and Fenway will be open as usual on the Nov. 3 General Election day. Those polling places are open, with socially-distant protocols and other sanitization protocols in place, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.