Nearly 3.6 million New Jerseyans voted in this year’s gubernatorial and legislative races, a level of turnout not seen in any non-presidential race this millennium.

About 54% of the state’s registered voters cast a ballot this year. That’s the highest percentage in a New Jersey state election year since at least 1998, and it exceeds turnout in every congressional midterm since then except 2018.

Those totals include 114,766 untallied mail ballots and 58,998 provisional ballots. The number of mail-in ballots will rise over the coming days as ballots postmarked by Election Day continue to reach officials.

Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D) celebrates victory with running mate Dale Caldwell at the Hilton East Brunswick on Nov. 4, 2025. (Photo by Amanda Brown/New Jersey Monitor)

Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli Tuesday, 57%-43%, to become the state’s new governor-elect. Sherrill, a congresswoman since 2019, is set to take office on January 20, succeeding fellow Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy. Democrats also flipped a handful of Assembly seats in longtime Republican districts, while Sherrill won Morris County, a longtime GOP stronghold in governor’s races.

Turnout this year far eclipsed that of the state’s two most recent gubernatorial races. In 2021, more than 2.6 million voted, or about 40%. Four years earlier, that number was just under 2.2 million, or 39%.

Democratic State Chairman LeRoy Jones said his party has President Donald Trump to thank for the turnout, arguing the administration’s tariffs, prosecutions of political foes, and deployment of military forces into American cities animated voters to respond.

“All those things created a perfect storm, and the turnout was just not in New Jersey,” Jones said, adding, “This whole Donald Trump rollout over the last 10 months has been the gift that gave to the turnout.”

Democrats surpassed expectations in races nationwide Tuesday, winning the governor’s seat and a slew of legislative offices in Virginia, securing a redistricting measure in California, and maintaining Supreme Court seats in Pennsylvania, among others.

Trump was also a major factor in 2018’s elections despite being off the ballot. Those midterms saw Democrats claim four of the five New Jersey House seats then held by Republicans, the party’s gains fueled by animus to the president.

New Jersey voters were split on how they cast their ballots this year. About 2 million voted in person on Election Day, while 739,702 did the same during the state’s nine-day early in-person voting period.

The number of New Jerseyans who cast ballots by mail reached 759,582 this year. Not all those outstanding ballots will be counted. Some mail-in and provisional ballots will be rejected because of procedural defects or because the voters who cast them had already voted or were otherwise ineligible.

Trump at center of GOP loss in NJ governor’s race, Republicans say

By raw votes, turnout was highest in Bergen County, where 407,154 residents cast ballots. Bergen is the state’s most populous county and has more registered voters than any other New Jersey county.

Three other counties — Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth — turned out more than half a million voters.

Ocean County, the state’s largest Republican stronghold, turned out 478,999 voters.

Hunterdon County saw the highest rates of turnout. There, nearly 63% voted this year. Bergen (60%) and Passaic (61%) were the only other two counties to exceed 60% turnout.

Turnout rates were lowest in Cumberland County, where about 43% of registered voters cast ballots this year. Essex County wasn’t far behind. Despite strong raw turnout numbers, just 43% of the county’s voters cast ballots.

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