New Jersey added 13,454 new voters in December 2020, with roughly the same number affiliating with each political party.
The state added 8,347 new Democrats and 7,418 new Republicans last month. For most of the last several years, Democratic voter registration had been outpacing the GOP by a near 2-1 margin.
The total number of unaffiliated (sometimes called independent) voters – for decades, the largest block of voters in New Jersey – went down by 2,535, according to registration numbers from the state Division of Elections.
New Jersey now has 1,080,367 more Democrats than Republicans. The state also has 100,041 more Democrats than unaffiliateds. Democrats passed the 1 million edge mark in 2020 and also passed the number of voters without any party affiliation for the first time last year.
Democrats make up 39% of the New Jersey electorate, while 22% of voters are registered Republicans and 37% are unaffiliated with a political party.
There were just marginal adjustments to each of the state’s 12 congressional districts.
Republicans narrowed the registration gap in the 2nd and 3rd districts, but Democrats increased their registration majorities in the 5th, 7th, and 11th districts.
In 2001, the last time Republicans had a governor and majorities in both houses of the Legislature, 55% of New Jersey voters were not affiliated with either political party. In two decades, years, that number has dropped to 37%.
Democrats made up 25% of the voters in 2001, while 19.5% were registered as Republicans.