Nearly 2M voters in N.J. cast their ballots before Election Day

Election workers across New Jersey took a deep breath on Monday.
The early voting period ended on Sunday — with massive turnout — and poll workers and election officials used Monday to prepare mail-in ballots for counting and to brace for Election Day on Tuesday, when the rest of the state’s registered voters can cast their ballots in what historians are calling the most consequential election of our lifetimes.
But more than a quarter of the state’s registered voters didn’t wait for Election Day, casting their ballots by voting early or by turning in their mail-in ballots. (See map below.)
Voters came in our droves in person and set new records, braving long lines and sometimes, whacky or ill-tempered behavior, to have their say during the nine-day early voting period that ended Sunday. More than 1.17 million ballots were cast in-person during that time frame.
When you add together the early votes and mail-in ballots received by Nov. 3, New Jerseyans cast more than 1.93 million votes before Election Day.
That’s a big turnout, with 28.86% of the Garden State’s more than 6.7 million registered voters taking part ahead of Tuesday.
Election officials received more mail-in ballots through Sunday than it did through the 2022 midterm election. As of Nov. 3, more than two-thirds of voters — 751,837 out of 1.113 million — who requested a mail-in ballot returned them.
You can track your mail-in ballot through the state’s Track My Ballot portal.
Can’t see the map? Click here.
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The contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump for the nation’s top job may have inspired many of the early and mail-in voters here and across the country. Both candidates have New Jersey connections, with Trump spending time at his golf club in Bedminster, while Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, was raised in Old Bridge.
In New Jersey, eyes are also on the race to be the state’s next U.S. Senator, being fought out between U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat, and hotelier Curtis Bashaw, the Republican candidate. Incumbent Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, who resigned on Aug. 20 after his conviction on corruption charges, was replaced on an interim basis by George Helmy, who was appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy.
Voters will also decide the one race in the state for the House of Representatives that’s considered a toss-up. It’s for the 7th Congressional District, where Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. is running against Democrat Sue Altman, a former director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance.
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NJ Advance Media reporter Jelani Gibson contributed to this report.
Karin Price Mueller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KPMueller. Katie Kausch may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch.