TOMS RIVER, NJ – As New Jersey and Ocean County inch closer towards a mail-in ballot election, Governor Phil Murphy today announced that 1.75 million ballots or about 45% of the 2016 total votes cast have been received by election boards across the state. In some parts of Ocean County, as many as 60% of mail-in ballots have been received.
“With Election Day just 15 days away, I’m pleased to report that just about 1.75 million ballots — it’s even up since they did the slide this morning — have already been returned to county clerk’s offices across the state,” Murphy said on Monday. “As a point of reference, there were nearly 3.9 million votes cast in total in New Jersey in 2016, so we are already at 45% to match the number from four years ago. So folks, if you have not yet returned your completed ballot, I urge you to put it in the mail today, the postage is already paid. Or, if you don’t want to do that, utilize one of the secure drop boxes in your county. You can also hand-deliver your ballot in advance to your county board of elections or show up and give it to a poll worker on Election Day. No matter how you do it, your vote-by-mail ballot is safe and it is secure.”