Both vote by mail and early voting as of yesterday totaled the following: 237,000 Democrats versus 77,000 GOP and 56,000 unaffiliated.

People who actually voted in polls yesterday appear to be about 20,000 statewide:

9,400 Democrats, 6,300 Republicans, 3,500 unaffiliated voters.

In all three battleground districts (LD2, LD8 and LD16), Democrats appear to be outpacing Republicans by strong margins.

It’s early voting, and so the trend lines would figure to go that way; moreover, in a tightened environment, unaffiliated voters will move to the forefront. Is Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli closing the gap with unaffiliateds with just one full work week remaining in the cycle?

Trying to set the pace in what has been a largely moribund election cycle, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy and his family voted this past Saturday, on the first day of early voting.

From Jean Mikle’s Asbury Park Press pool report this past Saturday:

“We just voted, all six Murphys, early voting. It was incredibly impressive, the machines, the workers, the whole process, it’s really impressive,” Middletown resident Murphy said after leaving the cultural center. “I just want to make sure folks know this is easy-peasy.”

In March, Murphy signed a law requiring New Jersey counties to provide early, in-person voting for all statewide elections. The law requires counties to hold nine days of in-person voting before Election Day in November, ending on the Sunday before the general election.

The machines used for early voting are digital.

More information from aNew Jersey Vote By Mail Analysis including returned ballots as of October 21, 2021 by the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University:

Party Returned Ballots Share of Total Returned Requested Ballots Return Rate

Democrats 227,786 64.7 533,189 42.7
Republicans 70,893 20.1 169,419 41.8
Unaffiliated 52,509 14.9 233,573 22.5
Independents 1,035 0.3 4,845 21.4

Total 352,223 100.00 941,026 37.4

All Voters Democrats Republicans

Requests Returned Rate Requests Returned Rate Requests Returned Rate
Atlantic 25,657 10,291 40.1 14,736 6,615 44.9 5,176 2,382 46.0
Bergen 88,608 26,583 30.0 47,753 17,247 36.1 14,281 4,585 32.1
Burlington 50,659 21,941 43.3 30,048 14,372 47.8 10,567 5,041 47.8
Camden 104,265 39,638 38.0 64,339 27,982 43.5 16,445 6,950 42.3
Cape May 11,148 5,405 48.5 4,857 2,663 54.8 4,000 2,047 51.2
Cumberland 11,115 5,365 48.3 6,392 3,467 54.2 2,410 1,260 52.3
Essex 61,774 17,696 28.6 40,331 12,959 32.1 4,638 1,423 30.7
Gloucester 32,289 15,244 47.2 18,991 10,189 53.7 6,261 2,911 46.5
Hudson 38,925 11,157 28.7 26,535 8,842 33.3 2,971 785 26.4
Hunterdon 16,712 7,091 42.4 8,186 3,971 48.5 4,706 2,124 45.1
Mercer 47,071 19,091 40.6 29,001 13,104 45.2 6,125 2,564 41.9
Middlesex 121,428 45,025 37.1 72,746 30,641 42.1 17,581 7,359 41.9
Monmouth 60,523 24,280 40.1 29,973 14,603 48.7 13,108 5,269 40.2
Morris 54,534 20,780 38.1 27,030 12,108 44.8 13,413 5,384 40.1
Ocean 57,814 25,464 44.0 24,339 13,080 53.7 18,853 8,790 46.6
Passaic 36,652 10,782 29.4 20,946 7,170 34.2 5,643 2,020 35.8
Salem 5,412 2,463 45.5 2,885 1,519 52.7 1,271 603 47.4
Somerset 46,381 18,283 39.4 23,531 10,449 44.4 9,249 4,158 45.0
Sussex 11,537 4,991 43.3 5,342 2,637 49.4 3,674 1,754 47.7
Union 47,858 16,329 34.1 30,274 11,810 39.0 5,693 2,077 36.5
Warren 10,658 4,324 40.6 4,953 2,358 47.6 3,353 1,407 42.0

The counties in which more than 20,000 votes have been cast so far include: Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean.

Middlesex Democrats have pulled into the lead for this week, with 30,641 ballots returned.

Next are the Camden Democrats, with 27,982 returned.

Bergen, Burlington and Monmouth Democrats round out the week’s top five, with more than 14,000 registered Democrats returning ballots in each county.

On the GOP side, Ocean, Middlesex, Camden, Monmouth, Morris, Burlington each have more than 5,000 ballots returned by registered Republicans