A steady stream of voters made their way to the polls on Saturday, in what is the first of nine days where they can vote early and in person.
Polls opened at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, and by 10:45 a.m., about 30 people were waiting in line at the River Vale Community Center in River Vale to cast their votes.
Many voters said they were there mainly to cast their vote in this year’s New Jersey gubernatorial race between Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who are vying to fill the seat of term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy.
Sticker given out on Oct. 25, 2025 in River Vale to early in-person voters.
Others said they took advantage of the first day of early voting because they won’t be in New Jersey on Election Day on Nov. 4, and preferred voting in person over mail-in ballots.
One Bergen County resident said he was going to be in Aruba on Election Day, while one college student said he was home for the weekend and took the opportunity to vote since he will be at Rutgers taking classes on Nov. 4.
Early in-person voting will be available for nine days, until Nov. 2. There are fewer locations for early voting than those in general elections and based on population. The early locations will be open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Voting officials don’t anticipate the same long lines at the in-person early voting locations that were seen during last year’s presidential election, which brought out a record number of early voters.
“We think early voting will be brisk this year, nothing like the presidential election,” Bergen County Superintendent of Elections Debra Francica has said. “That was so amazing. Over 112,000 people voted over the nine days and that really did alleviate a lot of the lines on Election Day. That’s the full intent of early voting and that was finally realized in Bergen County.”
During the state’s nine days of early in-person voting in 2024, a total of 1,172,842 voters went to the polls, with lines forming in some locations daily.
In Bergen County, the 112,000 who cast their votes early out of the total 463,837 ballots cast accounted for about 24% of the votes.
In 2023, just 124,197 people used the early in-person voting option. The opportunity to vote early in person was first made available in New Jersey in 2021.
The lines moved fast on Saturday with a new voting system that was implemented last year in time for the presidential election.
In 2023, new voting machines were purchased in Bergen County, creating a three-step voting process. Changes were made during the last primary election to make the experience simpler.
The change has streamlined the check-in process down to an average of 39 seconds, Francica said.
Francica said nothing has changed since last year and that other counties have reached out to model their systems after Bergen County’s voting process.
“We are rocking and rolling and it’s very quick service at the tables,” Francica said. “It’s wonderful and we are very happy about it. Other counties are doing it this way now too, because it just wasn’t working the other way.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New Jersey voters turn out for first day of early in-person voting
