SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Early in-person voting is now open in New Jersey for the primary election on Tuesday. Turnout is expected to be very low statewide, with only a few competitive races on the ballot. Two of those races are in the South Jersey area.
Republican state Sen. Ed Durr is being challenged by his former running mate Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer in the 3rd Legislative District.
In District 4, Gloucester County Commissioner Nick DeSilvio is facing Washington Township Councilman Chris Del Borrello for the Senate primary. Both races are on the Republican side.
In both cases, primary season has been a contest of who is more conservative, according to Ben Dworki, professor and director of the Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at Rowan University.
“This has excited some Democrats who are watching from the outside in the hopes that their chances of winning in these districts will be helped if the Republicans choose the more extreme candidate,” he said.
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Dworkin projects only about 12% of voters statewide will turn out. Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey politics at Rider University, thinks it’ll be even less — about 8%, or 500,000. He said it’s not a mystery why interest is so low.
“The 40 election districts across New Jersey, we probably have contested races in less than a quarter of them,” Rasmussen said. “That means in three-quarters of the districts that you might live in in New Jersey, there’s not really a compelling race to come out for.”
About 2 million voters are registered as Independents, but they can’t vote in New Jersey’s primary unless they declare for a party — another reason why primary turnout is low.
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