New Jersey casts nearly 224,000 votes in advance of primary election

With vote-by-mail ballots and early in-person voting, 223,646 New Jerseyans have already voted in advance of  Tuesday’s primary election as of yesterday, according to an analysis by Ryan Dubicki, an Associated Press election researcher.

A total of 7,919 votes were cast during the first day of early voting on Friday, including 4,780 Democrats and 3,139 Republicans.

Vote-by-mail ballots have been returned by 215,727 New Jersey voters, with 30% of the 730,607 ballots already returned.  Democrats have returned 31% of their votes, while 28% of Republicans have sent them back.

So far, 7% of all registered Democrats and 3% of all registered Republicans statewide have already voted.

Hudson County, where Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian Stack has hundreds of volunteers on the street getting out the early vote, leads the state in in-person early voting with 1,267 votes cast.  Union City made up 56% of all early votes cast in Hudson on Friday, and the 33rd legislative district, where Stack is unopposed for his State Senate seat, had 66% of all early votes on Friday.  Roughly 93% of the in-person votes came from Democrats.  (Stack told the New Jersey Globe that 463 early votes were cast in Union City as of 2 PM today.)

Camden County, where Democrats began aggressively pushing for vote-by-mail ballots about six years ago, leads the state: 24,862 VBMs from Democrats and 5,181 Republicans.  It’s possible that more votes will be cast in Camden County by mail than in-person on Election Day.

But Middlesex County is close to passing Camden.  A total of 22,838 Democrats and 4,091 Republicans have returned mail-in ballots so far.  Middlesex outpaced Camden in in-person early voting on Friday by a 6-1 margin.

In the 3rd legislative district, where State Sen. Ed Durr (R-Logan), the truck driver who upset Senate President Steve Sweeney, faces a bitter primary GOP primary fight with Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer (R-Woolwich), 1,966 VBM ballots have already been returned – 40% of all mailed by county election officials – and 123 Republicans voted on Friday.

Gloucester County makes up 60% of the Republican electorate in the 3rd and 62% of the total advance votes cast.  Salem County, which is 30% of the entire Republican primary voter pool, is 27% of the advance vote.

Vicious Republican primaries in the 4th district, which became one of the state’s top swing districts after reapportionment, already have 2,856 advance votes.  Republicans returned 39% of all vote-by-mail ballots, and 125 Republicans voted early on Friday.

Gloucester County Commissioner Nick DeSilvio (R-Franklin) has his home county organization line, where 53% of registered Republicans live, while former Washington Township Councilman Christopher Del Borrello has the line in Camden (40% of GOP voters) and Atlantic (7%).

But 57% of the advance voting in the 4th district primary comes from Camden and 36% from Gloucester.

In a competitive Republican State Assembly primary for two open seats in the 24th district in Northwestern New Jersey, two slates are competing: Lafayette Board of Education President Josh Aikens and Warren County Commissioner Jason Sarnoski; and Sussex County Commissioner Dawn Fantasia and Chester Mayor Mike Inganamort.  Robert Kovics is also running.

A total of 2,261 advance votes from Republicans have been cast: 2,049 through vote-by-mail – a 35% return rate – and 212 early votes came in on Friday.

Sussex has 63% of the registered Republicans in the 24th and accounts for 68% of the votes already in; Morris makes up 26% of the votes cast so far and 32% of the primary electorate.

In the 26th district, where State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) faces Morris County Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo (R-Montville) in the GOP primary, 3,095 votes are already in:  1,470 from Republicans, a 23% return rate, and 230 in-person early votes on Friday.  Morris makes up 83% of the district, and 82% of the advance vote comes from Morris.

Democrats in the 27th district, where two longtime state senators were forced into a primary after redistricting face-off – Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and Nia Gill (D-Montclair) – have already returned 4,770 ballots, a 27% return rate.  Buts just 163 Democrats voted early on Friday.

In the next-door 28th district, three Democrats are seeking two Assembly seats: incumbent Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) and her running mate, Deputy Essex County Clerk Garnet Hall, and former Maplewood Mayor Frank McGehee.   2,823 advance votes have been cast, with a  return rate for Democrats of 23%; 108 Democrats voted early.