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The first weekend of early voting in New Jersey saw a record turnout, with over 135,000 ballots cast on the first day, according to the New Jersey Division of Elections. This number surpasses all early votes cast during the 2023 election, when 124,197 ballots were cast over early voting's nine-day period. This is the first presidential election with early voting in New Jersey.
In addition to in-person voting, 599,000 voters have already returned their mail-in ballots, which is more than 50% of all mail-in ballots that were sent out to voters who requested them. So far, 11% of registered voters have cast their ballot, either by mail or early, in-person voting. This is the same percentage of voters who used early or mail-in voting during the entire 2022 election.
The turnout was about even between Democrats and Republicans, with 38.5% of the votes coming from registered Democrats, and 37.4% from registered Republicans. About 23.5% of the first-day early votes came from unaffiliated voters.
NJ.com reports that Camden County has seen the strongest voter turnout so far, with more than 18% of voters already making their choice.
The early voting period in New Jersey will continue for nine days ahead of the November 5 election, ending on November 3.