N.J. turnout at 10% after nearly 635,000 advance votes cast

New Jersey voters cast 163,429 in-person early ballots on Saturday and Sunday, the first two days of early voting for the November 4 general election, and 471,555 vote-by-mail ballots, according to an analysis conducted by VoteHub.

Voter turnout is 9.6% statewide; when inactive voters are removed from the registration total, turnout rises to 10.3%.

That’s a total of 634,983 advance votes already cast in next week’s gubernatorial contest between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

The in-person early votes came from 67,665 Democrats (42%), 63,178 Republicans (39%), and 31,585 unaffiliated and independents (19%).   That gives Democrats an edge of 5,487 in two days of early voting.

About 50.5% of all mailed ballots have been returned.

Of the VBM ballots, 296,339 were from Democrats (62.8%), 100,251 from Republicans (21.3%), and the remaining 34.5% from unaffiliateds and independents.   That means 196,088 more Democrats than Republicans cast ballots.  Both parties are returning mail-in ballots at roughly the same rate: 55.7% for Democrats and 54.5% for Republicans.