Vote-by-mail ballots already up 61% over 2015

184,429 New Jerseyans have voted in the 2019 general election so far. That’s 32% of the total vote-by-mail ballots mailed with more than a week to go.

So far, 46% of all VBM ballots cast in 2018 have already been returned.

In 2015, the last year Assembly candidates headed the ticket, there were 114,132 VBM ballots cast statewide.  That’s a 61% increase.

Based on party registration only, Democrats have a 50.6%-32.7% statewide advantage of those votes already cast.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed a new vote-by-mail law passed by the Legislature in 2018 and approved VBM reform after an emergency session of the Legislature last August.

As a result, County Clerks are now required to mail automatic VBM ballots to anyone who voted by mail in 2016, 2017 and 2018 – unless they specifically opt-out.

VBM ballots postmarked by November 5 have until close of business on November 7 to arrive at county election board offices.

In the suburban Camden County-based 6th district, 13,129 mail-in ballots have already been returned – 42.8% of those mailed out.  That’s about 42% of the total votes cast in the 2015 general election.

Camden has been the statewide leader in vote-by-mail, with VBM ballots exceeding machine votes in the June 2019 primary.

Statewide voter turnout in 2015 was just 22% — the lowest in a hundred years.