New Jersey Adds More Than 100,000 New Voters in Months Before Midterm

In yet another sign of voter engagement for the midterm elections, New Jersey has seen a spike of 110,814 new voters registered between January and the end of September this year, according to data from the Department of State.

The uptick is less than half of the 265,344 new voters who were added to the logs in the lead up to the 2016 presidential elections, but a huge increase from the last midterm elections in 2014, where the state shed 22,574 voters from the rolls overall.

In the Northern part of the state, the biggest rate of increase in new voters was in Morris County, the heart of the state's contested 11th Congressional District where former Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill is running against Republican State Assemblyman Jay Webber. The seat is open because Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen is retiring. He has held the seat since 1994 and it's been safely Republican since 1984. 

In Morris County,  6,806 new voters were added to the logs so far this year, 4,857 of which were Democrats. Republicans added 2,738 new voters. Facing his first competitive race in decades and mounting pressure from the grassroots organizers with NJ 11th for Change, Frelinghuysen announced in January, he wouldn't seek reelection.

Despite the uptick in Democrats, registered Republicans still have them outnumbered by about 32,499 votes in the county. Saily Avelenda, executive director of NJ 11th for Change, who's group has been registering voters and helping campaign for Sherrill, said she doesn't see that has a barrier to for the Democratic candidate.

"The Republicans that are in Morris County are not Trump-base Republicans, they're just not," Avelenda said. "They're Republicans who are socially progressive and fiscally conservative and the type of Trump agenda does not appeal to that type of a voter." 

"We see an opportunity in Morris County."

Across the state Democrats added 71,776 new registered voters, compared to 34,205 new Republican voters.