New Jerseyans have cast 7,682 VBMs for ’23 election

Nearly 908,000 New Jerseyans have requested vote-by-mail ballots for the November 2023 general election, and so far, 8,682 – slightly less than one percent — have been returned to election officials, according to an analysis by Ryan Dubicki, an Associated Press election researcher.

County clerks began mailing VBMs last week, and some districts are barely registering.  In the 11th, perhaps the most closely-watched district in the state, just five ballots have been returned.  In District 16, 768 VBMS out of 34,172 have come back; 450 of them came from Democrats and 215 from Republicans.

But in the 3rd district, where State Sen. Ed Durr (R-Logan) faces former Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Paulsboro), almost 7% of all vote-by-mail ballots sent out have already come back; Democrats are outpacing Republicans by a 3-1 margin.  About 3.5% of VBMs have been returned in the 4th district, where Democrats also have returned about three times as many mail-in ballots.

Of the 907,602 voters who are receiving mail-in ballots – that number will grow as election officials receive more requests over the next 40 days – 58% are registered Democrats and 18% are registered Republicans.

So far, 10% of Democrats and 1% of Republicans statewide have sent back their mail-in ballots.  Of the 213,314 unaffiliated voters in New Jersey,  which represents roughly 23% of the total mail-in ballots, 892 VBMs have been returned.

The numbers reflect vote-by-mail ballots marked as returned as of close of business Wednesday.

Voters may sign up to track their own ballots online.  Click HERE.