Article Dashboard_New Jersey Breaks Record For Fewest Voters_587

New Jersey Breaks Record For Fewest Voters

The shadow of a voter as he prepared to cast a ballot in Lodi, N.J., on Tuesday. Only 26% of the state registered voters came out for the off-year election.

New Jersey voters demonstrated record apathy in Tuesday elections,Cheap Johnson jersey, shattering previous turnout lows thanks to a shortage of competitive races and a district map favoring incumbents.

Roughly 26% of the state registered voters cast a ballot, according to unofficial county results compiled Wednesday. Of the 5.2 million registered voters in New Jersey, only 1.4 million made it to the polls,patrick willis youth jersey.

The Wall Street Journal analysis of unofficial county results did not include absentee votes from every county. The state hasn yet released official
voter turnout numbers,nike football jerseys.

That paltry turnout breaks the previous record low in 1999, when 31% of registered voters participated in an election featuring only state Assembly races. Readily available state records for election turnout date back to 1924, when 83% percent of registered voters cast ballots in a presidential election year in which President Calvin Coolidge triumphed.

With 120 legislative positions at stake in the Assembly and State Senate, only one seat changed hands Tuesday ?marking a record level of status quo entrenchment in Trenton.

t is very depressing,?said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, who argued that noncompetitive elections increase voter distrust in government. t was absolutely bad for the voters and bad for New Jersey government.?br />
Gov. Chris Christie blamed the legislative map when asking about his inability to alter the political balance in the Legislature, as he had hoped to do. ith the map they have, they won,49ers New Jersey,?Christie told reporters while at a Sussex County medical center Wednesday morning.

Only a handful of New Jersey legislative districts were considered competitive this year,New Rob Gronkowski Jersey, and turnout was especially bad in the counties with safe incumbents.

Essex County had the lowest turnout, with 82,955 out of 198,057 registered voters coming out to the polls, or 18%, county election records show. Hudson County saw just 19% of its voters cast a ballot, and in Passaic County just 22% of registered voters participated.

Even competitive campaigns did little to boost turnout. In Atlantic County ?where there were competitive races and a ballot question on sports betting had local significance ?34% of voters came to the polls.

Democrats picked up one legislative seat Tuesday largely due to redistricting, with the party rising to 48 seats in the Assembly and
maintaining its hold on 24 state Senate seats.

That new legislative map,Article Dashboard_Nfl Jerseys Make Great Gifts_300, completed earlier this year, surpassed the state previous political boundaries for preserving incumbents. In 2001, the most recent election after redistricting, 14 seats changed hands. Going back further, an analysis by the Monmouth University Polling Institute found that 31 seats shifted in 1991, six in 1981 and 26 in 1971.

With so few competitive races, campaigning and party spending were concentrated in just a handful of districts. Five legislative districts accounted of nearly 40% of the funds raised this year as of Oct. 25,Article Alley_Gift Sets Choices _432, or $14,Mick Vick Jersey 2012.1 million, according to an analysis by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The parties spent $3.2 million in District 2, one of the most competitive races, as opposed to $352,Article Snatch_Nfl Predictions The Art Of Picking,571 in District 17, a Democratic stronghold, ELEC records show.

As Monmouth University Murray sees it, the 2011 election was essentially decided back in April when the legislative map passed. he map did exactly what it was supposed to do. There was nothing [voters] could do to change it,?he said.