While the GOP continues to outpace Democrats in voter registration tallies, it’s unaffiliated voters who are further dominating the registration forms.
The number of unaffiliated voters in the state grew by more than 15,000 last month, according to data released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Elections. Unaffiliateds added 14,604 voters in July, and the further growth is likely to continue as the state creeps closer to November’s general election.
New Jersey now has 6,621,933 registered voters, a jump from the 6,598,688 July total and the most in the state’s history. The 6.6 million figure includes 2,524,384 Democrats (38%), 1,603,550 Republicans (24%), and 2,415,353 unaffiliated voters (36%).
Democrats, unlike Republicans, saw a jump in registration from July to August. Democrats gained just 1,040 voters in July, but saw a net gain of 2,576 in August, which featured the Democratic National Convention and Vice President Kamala Harris’s first full month as a presidential nominee.
Democrats in the competitive 7th congressional district gained 694 registrants in August, which accounts for more than a quarter of the statewide Democratic increase and more than any other district.
Republicans in July experienced a 7,165 bump in registrations, but that number dipped to 5,444 statewide in August.
The GOP still outpaced Democrats by nearly 3,000 registrants — a drop in the bucket to the 920,000-voter advantage Democrats have statewide.
And while Republicans gained on Democrats statewide, the opposite was true in NJ-7 last month. In New Jersey’s 7th, Democratic registrants grew by 694, Republicans by 450, and unaffiliated registrants by 1,617. Republican registrants still outnumber their Democratic counterparts in NJ-7 by about 18,900.
And while voter registration is growing throughout most of the state, one district saw a dip: NJ-1 lost 97 voters in August.