Democrats continued to expand their voter registration lead in February after routine clean up of voter rolls in the wake of the November election saw Republicans gain ground on registration.
The state has 5,429 more registered Democrats than it did on Feb. 1, while Republicans added only 408 voters to their ranks last month, according to voter registration figures from the state Division of Elections.
Registration among unaffiliated voters, meanwhile, fell by 4,463.
Democrats’ registration edge is up to 1,084,07. They account for 39.1% of the state’s 6.5 million voters, while Republicans’ share is down to a little more than 22.4%, and unaffiliated voters account for about 37.2% of the electorate.
In 2001, the last time Republicans had a governor and majorities in both houses of the Legislature, 55% of New Jersey voters were not affiliated with either political party. That number has dropped by about 18 percentage points over the last two decades.
Democratic voter share has risen by about 14 points, while Republicans gained only about 3 percentage points.
Democrats first won a million-voter edge last year, also outnumbering unaffiliated voters for the first time in new Jersey’s history.
There are still more Democrats than Republicans in all but one of New Jersey’s congressional districts — that’s the fourth district, which Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton) has represented for 40 years — though they outnumber unaffiliated voters in only six districts, the first, sixth, eighth, ninth, 10th and 12th.
Republicans currently hold legislative seats in three districts where Democrats outnumber them: the 2nd in Atlantic, the Burlington-based 8th, the Union-based 21st, and the 39th in Bergen. Democrats don’t occupy any districts where Republicans have a registration edge.