Turnout so far: 9% for Democrats, 5% for GOP

New Jerseyans have cast 308,462 votes in advance of the June 10 primary election, including 26,836 in-person ballots on the first day of early voting, according to an analysis by Ryan Dubicki, an election researcher for the Associated Press.

In the Democratic primary, 227,940 advance votes have been cast; that represents roughly 9.4% of the total number of registered Democrats in the state.    Of that number, 213,501 were from vote-by-mail voters; Democrats have a VBM return rate of 41.5%.

On the Republican side, 80,207 votes have been cast – about 5% of the total GOP electorate. Republican voters have returned 67,810 mail-in ballots with a return rate of 34.8%.

Union City, where GOTV King Brian P. Stack is the mayor and state senator, cast 1,083 in-person early votes on Tuesday – 4% of the statewide total.  There were more in-person early votes cast in Union City than in nineteen counties.

Howell Township cast the most Republican in-person early votes in the state on Day One: 231.

Maplewood Democrats appear to be struggling: just 28% of all vote-by-mail ballots have been returned; that’s below the 41.5% statewide average among Democrats and 37% in Essex County.  That’s less than the other municipalities in the 28th legislative district — Newark, Irvington, South Orange – and not a good sign for the re-election prospects of hometown Assemblywoman Garnet Hall (D-Maplewood).

Cherry Hill Democrats have cast 6,268 advance votes, representing a turnout so far of 23.5% of all registered Democratic voters.  Edison, where there is a hotly-contested mayoral primary, 4,653 advance votes have been cast in the Democratic primary, putting turnout at 15.6%.

Toms River has cast the most votes among Republicans: 1,506, a turnout of 5.6%.