More than 175,000 votes already cast for mid-term elections

New Jerseyans have already cast 176,370 votes for the November 5 mid-term elections, with 30.1% of the vote-by-mail ballots mailed by county clerks already returned.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed a new vote-by-mail law in August, days after the Legislature returned to Trenton in an emergency session to a approve a bill to automatically send VBM ballots to all voters who used them in 2016, 201 and 2018, unless they proactively opted out.

Of the 568,959 VBM ballots mailed statewide, 46% were to Democrats, 25% to Republicans, and 28% to Unaffiliated voters, typically referred to as Independents.

Democrats make up 50.7% of the ballots already returned, with 32.8% and Unaffiliateds at 16%.

Democrats make up 37.9% of New Jersey’s registered voters.  Republicans are at 21% and Unaffiliateds at 39%.

In 2015, the last time Assembly candidates led the ballot, New Jersey cast a total of 114,132 VBM ballots – 98.8% of the 1,10,522 votes cast statewide.  Voter turnout was 22%.