Murphy still wants early voting, but future of all-mail elections unclear

Gov. Phil Murphy still wants in-person early voting for next year’s elections, but it’s not clear whether he’ll seek to move to permanently hold New Jersey’s low-turnout races entirely through the mail.

“As a general matter, I would love to add in-person early voting and I’d love to add getting back to machines, and that requires an investment to do that,” he said Monday. “So, you’d still have a robust mail-in piece. I’m not sure I have a different opinion as to what a May non-partisan versus a June primary or a November general, but that’s still, conceptually, at least what we want to try to get to.”

The mostly mail elections held in the state this year have consistently demolished previous turnout records. Most recently, more than 4.6 million voters cast ballots in the general election, trouncing 2016’s record.

About 3.9 million voters participated in that race.

In-person early voting may bump turnout even more, especially among urban communities in Essex and Hudson Counties, where residents are used to going to polling places.