Janelle Irwin Taylor
The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections office will use Tropicana Field as a mail ballot drop-off location, Supervisor Julie Marcus announced Thursday.
The office is partnering with the Tampa Bay Rays to ensure safe access to secure voting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Voters can drop mail ballots off at Gate 1 at Tropicana Field beginning Oct. 19 and until Nov. 2.
Voters can drop off ballots from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily.
“I am excited to partner with the Tampa Bay Rays. This is another example of our community coming together during a pandemic to have successful elections,” Marcus said. “Tropicana Field is an ideal place for an additional mail ballot drop-off location to help serve nearly 370,000 Pinellas voters who have already requested mail ballots for the General Election.”
All mail ballot drop-off locations are staffed by deputized election workers who verify ballots have been signed. The ballots are never left unattended and are returned to the elections office at the end of each day where they are secured in a ballot storage locker.
“I want to thank the Rays for offering their facility and understanding that voters in Pinellas County overwhelmingly choose mail ballots. We sincerely appreciate the Rays working closely with us in providing their facility is as a ballot drop-off location and recognizing our needs are different than the needs of other counties,” Marcus said.
Marcus said more than half of all Pinellas County voters have requested mail ballots. Tropicana Field is an ideal mail ballot drop-off site because there are two early voting sites within 2.5 miles.
Tropicana Field is the county’s 25th ballot drop-off location and the fifth where voters can drive-through.
Ballot drop-off locations are not open on Election Day, Nov. 3. If voters have not already returned their ballots by then, they can return them to any Supervisor of Elections office from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Voters can still request a mail ballot on the Supervisor’s website.
