by Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor
More than 163,000 New Jerseyans cast early in-person ballots on Saturday and Sunday, marking a decline from turnout records set for last year’s presidential race.
Statewide, 163,428 voters cast machine ballots in person this weekend, down from the 247,003 that cast ballots in person during the opening weekend of last year’s early-voting period.
The reduction falls in line with expectations for this year’s elections, when the gubernatorial race and all 80 Assembly seats are on the ballot. Turnout for federal elections, and presidential races in particular, is typically higher than turnout for state races.
The front-runners in the governor’s race are Jack Ciattarelli (R) and Mikie Sherrill (D).
More Democrats came out than Republicans. Statewide, 68,665 Democrats cast early in-person votes, compared to 63,178 Republicans.
Turnout among unaffiliated voters was comparatively low: Only 30,943 voters not aligned with any political party cast early votes this weekend. Another 642 votes came from voters registered with a minor party.
The weekend’s turnout represents a fraction of the voters who will likely cast ballots in the top-of-the-ballot race by the time Election Day ends. There are 6.6 million registered voters in New Jersey. Roughly 2.6 million total cast ballots for governor in the last gubernatorial election in 2021.
Monmouth County, where 17,475 cast early votes, saw the greatest early voting turnout this weekend, followed by Bergen (16,112), Ocean (15,204), and Morris (11,900).
Those rankings are similar to the ones seen during last year’s early-voting opening weekend. Then, Bergen reported the highest vote totals, followed closely by Monmouth and Ocean counties. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3UGx1/1/
Essex (10,965), Union (10,552), Hudson (10,459), and Middlesex (10,117) counties also reported receiving more than 10,000 early in-person votes this weekend.
Salem County, by far New Jersey’s least populous county, saw the lowest turnout. Just 886 Salem County residents voted this weekend, down from 1,735 in last year’s opening weekend.
Democrats had an early voting edge in 11 of the state’s 21 counties, with Republicans ahead in the other 10.
New Jersey’s nine-day early voting period runs through Sunday, Nov. 2. Eligible voters can cast ballots at any early polling center in their county.
Those centers are open between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Voters can also cast early votes through the mail, either by sending a vote-by-mail ballot to their county’s Board of Elections, placing it in a secure ballot drop box, or by hand-delivering it to their county’s Board of Elections.
Mail ballots can be cast at a secure drop box or county elections office until 8 p.m. on Election Day, and mail ballots returned through the post will be counted so long as they are postmarked by Election Day and reach officials no later than six days after the election.
Mail-in ballots cannot be cast in person at polling places.