Republican candidate for governor Jack Ciattarelli and wife Melinda went to their local polling place in Hillsborough Friday morning to take advantage of New Jersey’s new, electronic early-voting system. While the latest figures show Democrats ahead by a small margin in early voting, the vote-by-mail numbers give them a whopping advantage: Out of 451,000 ballots mailed in, Democrats cast 65% compared to just 19% for Republicans and 16% for unaffiliated voters.
“It’s not even a close contest. Democrats have a 200,000 vote lead right now, and by Election Day, it’s going to be a quarter of a million vote edge they have, even before the polls open,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. Meanwhile, incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, welcomed progressive icon Sen. Bernie Sanders to a get-out-the-vote rally at Rutgers-New Brunswick Thursday night.
