Bill to extend early primary voting passes Judiciary Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill Thursday to extend in-person early voting from three days to seven days of voting.

State Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City), an early-voting aficionado, sponsored the legislation. 

Early voting in New Jersey took off in 2024, with 1,172,842 early votes cast at polling locations before Election Day; 27% of all votes cast were early, in-person. That number eclipsed the 860,586 vote-by-mail ballots. New Jerseyans cast 50.3% of the votes on November 5 in an election that produced a 64.7% turnout.

The bill appropriates $6 million to extend early voting. An earlier version of the bill would have extended early voting to 10 days, but it was amended Thursday.