Over 1.33 million votes cast in N.J. as turnout passes 20%

A total of  1,334,572 votes have been cast in the New Jersey general election, bringing the statewide voter turnout so far to 20% — or 21.7% when roughly 470,000 inactive voters are excluded from the calculation — according to an analysis by VoteHub.

VoteHub reports that 741,9248 voters cast in-person machine ballots during New Jersey’s nine-day early voting period.  That universe is 41.6% Democratic, 35.4% Republican, and 23% unaffiliated and independent.

A total of 592,648 vote-by-mail ballots have already been returned; that’s 57% of all ballots mailed by county clerks already in the bank.   Of those, 336,556 (61.9%) are from Democrats, 123,234 (20.8%) from Republicans, and192,858 (17.4%) from unaffiliated or independent voters

Four years ago, 594,840 (22.5%) of New Jersey voters cast their ballots by mail.

Of the 938,323 mail-in ballots sent out by county clerks for the November 4 general election, 57% came from Democrats, 19.7% from Republicans, and 23.3% from unaffiliated or independent voters. The return rates are relatively even between the two major parties:68.6% from Democrats, 66.6% from Republicans, and 47% from unaffiliateds and independents.

In the 2021 governor’s race between Democrat Phil Murphy and Republican Jack Ciattarelli, 2,648,814 ballots were cast, and 12,278 were rejected.   Turnout was at 40%.