55% of VBM ballots returned

New Jerseyans have returned 55% of all vote-by-mail ballots sent out by county clerks as of October 31, according to TargetSmart.

A total of 305,480 of 558,185 ballots have been received the county election boards. That represents a 169% increase over the 2014 mid-term elections.

Democrats have a 48%-28% advantage on returned VBM ballots.

Women make up 56% of all VBM ballots returned, and 85% of returned VBM ballots are from white voters.  More than seven out of ten (72%) of the returned VBM ballots are from voters over age 50.

While voter between the ages of 18-29 have shown a 470% increase in vote-by-mail over the 2014 numbers, just 37,294 ballots overall – 12% statewide – have been returned.

New Jersey still has 252,705 outstanding VBM ballots.  Of those ballots not returned as of October 31, 70,404 are from 18-29 votes, 13,906 from Blacks, 19,974 from Latinos, and 141,165 from women.  Perhaps more importantly, 78,638 are from Democrats and 30,245 from Republicans.

Voters have until election day to return them – and the post office has two days to deliver them after that – or voters can go to their regular polling location and vote by provisional ballot.