Residents can cast early machine ballots at 159 early voting centers throughout the state through Sunday Nov. 3. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor)
Early in-person voting will begin Saturday in New Jersey, allowing voters to cast early machine votes in a presidential election for the first time.
Voting advocates urged residents to get their ballots in early to avoid long lines and unexpected disruptions — like weather and traffic — on Election Day.
“It could be something as devastating as a hurricane or a minor inconvenience like a flat tire, but there are 100 reasons that can keep voters away from the polls on Election Day itself, and utilizing in-person early voting ahead of the election alleviates a lot of those concerns,” said Jesse Burns, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey.
The nine-day early voting period will run through Sunday, Nov. 3, with polling stations open between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. from Monday through Saturday and until 6 p.m. on Sundays.
State law allows voters to cast ballots at any early voting center in their county of residence.
This year, New Jersey’s 21 counties will stand up 159 early voting centers. The state reimburses counties’ early voting expenses for up to five, seven, or 10 early voting centers, depending on a county’s number of registered voters, and requires they erect at least three, five, or seven centers based on the same.
Only Hudson County is standing up early voting centers above the state’s reimbursement limit. The county is set to accept early in-person votes at 27 locations this year.
See a list of early voting centers
Though pre-Election Day voting accounted for just over a third of ballots cast in last year’s general election, uptake of early in-person has been slow since the state first allowed the practice in November 2021.
Last November, 7% of the roughly 1.76 million New Jerseyans who voted did so at an early voting center, while 30% cast mail ballots.
At a news conference Thursday in Trenton to encourage voting and assure voters of election protections, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way and Attorney General Matt Platkin told reporters they vote early and in person — Way at her local library and Platkin at his local zoo.
“So voting is very popular in our house, as is going to the zoo after voting,” Platkin said.
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way and Attorney General Matt Platkin talk about voting and protections in place to ensure election integrity at a news conference Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton. Both said they typically vote early in person. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Way attributed New Jersey’s measly early-voting numbers to a lack of awareness. Vote by mail had a slow start too, but so far this fall about 51% of voters who have requested to vote by mail have already done so, Way said.
“I always think of voters becoming acclimated to a different way of voting,” Way said. “We’re getting the message out there that this is another safe, secure, and, of course, flexible way. And the hope is throughout the years, voters will realize this and make certain that they cast their ballots in person early.”
Burns agreed there is more work that needs to be done to raise awareness of early voting.
“But it’s so important people don’t wait until Election Day, particularly in high turnout years,” she added.
Turnout in presidential election years is far higher than it is in other cycles. 2020’s general election, which was run almost entirely through mail ballots, saw 72% turnout, compared to 41% in 2022 and 27% last year.
The relative newness of early in-person voting could help explain why few voters take advantage of the practice. Though mail-in voting rates have climbed with fair consistency over the past decade, those gains have followed concerted efforts by political parties.
In Camden County, where Democrats have spent years building out a mail-voting operation, a majority of ballots are now routinely returned through the post, but it’s not clear parties have aimed similar efforts at early in-person voting.
“The parties invest in pushing vote by mail,” Burns said. “I don’t know that they’ve really started investing in pushing out in-person early voting messages.”
Dana DiFilippo contributed.
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