TRENTON, N.J. – The United States already reached two-thirds of 2016’s total turnout as of Halloween thanks to a historic COVID-19 catalyzed early vote push.
New Jersey’s 2020 turnout hit 52% on Thursday and then climbed again to 57% on Sunday, putting the state on track to eclipse its 68% turnout in 2016 and possibly even the 73% turnout for the 2008 “Obama year.” Over 3.5 million ballots have been recorded by the states’ county boards of election. The state mailed ballots to each of its 6,053,996 registered voters.
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It’s extremely unlikely, however, that the state will set a turnout percentage record. The modern record for a presidential race was 91% in 1960.
Still, New Jersey shoudl set the record for the most raw votes cast in a presidential year. The current all-time high was 3,957,303 in 2016 and, with New Jersey counting ballots received up to November 10th (provided they’re postmarked by November 3rd), iit’s almost guarantees that over 4 million votes will be recorded when the dust finally settles.
Republican and Democrat return rates were roughly equal heading into the weekend but there are over 1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state.
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