Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin looked across the city of Newark on election Day and told InsiderNJ that he sees “brisk turnout” in the county with the largest raw rolls of Democratic voters among all counties.

Durkin said he believes this gubernatorial election will likely reflect the largest numbers in recent gubernatorial election history. Reports out of Maplewood and Montclair reflect solid numbers.

” I see it bigger than all those elections,” Durkin said. “I think we could see the highest turnout for governor in the last 40 years in Essex, but it won’t show by percentage.”

That’s because in 2005, for example, Corzine versus Forrester, there were 406,000 registered Democratic voters in Essex County. Now there are 491,000. So the chances are good of a lower percentage of the total but higher turnout.

The average turnout for a gubernatorial election over the last number of years is 182,000 to 185,000 votes in Essex.

Durkin said he wouldn’t be surprised if that number reaches 190K today or more.

It is supposed to rain later this afternoon and early evening, and so part of the brisk showing early may have to do with voters making adjustments.