New Jersey voters cast 247,003 in-person early votes on Saturday and Sunday, the first two days of a nine-day early voting period.
As of last night, 858,031 advance votes had been cast by voters in New Jersey, bringing the statewide turnout to 12.9% of all registered voters and roughly 14.2% of active voters, according to an analysis by Associated Press election researcher Ryan Dubicki.
Those numbers include 611,028 returned vote-by-mail ballots out of 1,096,199 that county clerks have mailed. That represents a 55.7% return rate statewide.
Early voting attracted 136,075 voters on Saturday and 111,928 on Sunday.
Democrats maintain a 54%-19% edge in requests for vote-by-mail ballots, and a 54%-25% advantage on returned ballots. Democrats are returning ballots at a rate of 62%; the GOP return rate is 59%.
In the 7th district, where Republican Tom Kean, Jr. faces Democrat Sue Altman in his bid for a second term in Congress, 97,705 people have already voted, including 30,855 in-person early votes. That’s about 12.5% of the total early votes cast statewide.
Of the 66,850 vote-by-mail ballots already returned in the 7th, 35,081 (52.5%) are from Democrats, 28,220 (24.4%) from Republicans, and 30,550 (45.7%) from unaffiliated voters.
More Republicans than Democrats, 13,631 (44%) to 9,520 (31%) cast their in-person early votes on Saturday and Sunday, along with 7,511 unaffiliated voters (24%) and 193 voters who are registered as members of various independent parties.
Among the total advance votes, Democrats lead, 45,440 (46.5%) to 30,870 (31.6%).