New Jerseyans have already cast 3,521 votes in the first few days of vote-by-mail ballots for the November 5 general election, according to an analysis by Ryan Dubicki, an Associated Press election researcher.
Election officials began mailing out 962,759 mail-in ballots last week. Of those, 56% went to Democrats, 19% to Republicans, and 25% to unaffiliated voters and independents. Democrats and Republicans are returning the early wave of VBMs at the same rate, but 65% of all ballots already received by county election boards are from registered Democrats.
According to Dubicki, 916,640 VBMs were mailed out during in late September 2022, a 5% increase.
In the hotly contested 7th district, where Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) and Democrat Sue Altman are battling in the state’s most competitive congressional district, 273 votes have already been cast.
Of the 7th district voters receiving mail-in ballots, 51.5% are Democrats, and 23.8% are Republicans.