TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey’s turnout for the 2020 election was 72% of registered voters, just shy of the 73% turnout witnessed in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected America’s first black president.
Turnout was lowest in Essex County (62%), home to the City of Newark where Democrats win easily, and highest down in South Jersey’s Goucester County (79%), one of two New Jersey counties (the other was Morris) that Biden won in 2020 but Donald Trump carried in 2016.
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While a decent turnout relative to recent state elections it still wasn’t close to a record state-wide. The modern record-setting year was 1960 (Nixon v. Kennedy) when 91% of ballots were cast. John F. Kennedy carried New Jersey that year by a razor-thin 0.8-points over the outgoing vice president: