About 10% turnout in N.J. primary, so far

New Jersey voters have cast 401,703 votes in advance of Tuesday’s primary election, representing about 10% of all registered Democrats and Republicans in the state, according to an analysis by Ryan Dubicki, an Associated Press election researcher.

Through Friday, 51,964 Democrats and 39,273 Republicans voted at in-person early voting centers across the state.

Election officials have also received 310,466 vote-by-mail ballots through Friday: 236,918 from Democrats and 73,184 from Republicans.  Democrats are returning VBMs at a rate of 46%; the Republican return rate is 42.1%.    That means 277,752 Democrats and 100,847 Republicans who were mailed ballots have not yet returned them.

The turnout percentages – 11.8% among Democrats and 6.9% among Republicans – don’t reflect previously unaffiliated voters who have opted to join a major political party by casting a ballot in the primary election.  New Jersey has over 2.4 million unaffiliateds.

Camden County Democrats have cast the most advance votes in the state, 35,005, followed by Middlesex (34,147), Bergen (23,766) and Essex (22,502).  Monmouth County Republicans have cast the highest number of advance votes in the state (16,124), followed by Morris (14,603) and Ocean (14,129).

In the 32nd legislative district, where six Democrats are facing off for two State Assembly seats, 5,188 advance votes have been cast, including 1,835 in-person early votes and 3,353 vote-by-mail ballots.  Democrats have a VBM return rate in the Jersey City/Hoboken district of 38.3%.

In the 31st district, where two incumbents are on different slates in a four-way Assembly contest, Democrats have cast 4,753 advance votes; in the 33rd district, where GOTV King Brian P. Stack is on the prowl, Democrats have cast 9,247 votes.  Union City, where Stack is mayor, leads Mayor Nicholas Sacco’s hometown of North Bergen in advance votes, 2,647 to 1,261; some of the North Bergen votes come from the Stack organization.

Democrats in the 28th have cast 5,429 advance votes, and 3,698 Democrats in the 35th have already voted.   In District 37, advance turnout is 7,367 votes.  The Camden-based 6th district 17,561 Democrats have already voted, the most in the state.

In the 39th district, where two incumbent GOP assemblymen face a tough primary challenge from ex-congressional candidate Frank Pallotta, 6,247 Republican votes have been cast.