Voter registration deadline looms in New Jersey

Tuesday is the last day to register in New Jersey to vote in the November election.

Jerry Midgette, election administrator at the Somerset County Board of Elections and the president of New Jersey Association of Election officials, said registration is up by 4 percent since the June primary election.

“It’s a quite unusual election that we’re facing this time around, so I think it’s piquing a lot of interest,” he said. “So we’re getting that kind of registration activity as a result of the political climate and the type of election that we’re having this year.”

Some people wait until the deadline to register because their interest increases as the election gets closer, Midgette said. And the number of registered voters could grow even more in the remaining hours as lines of people form outside the board of elections office wanting to sign up.

“People are coming in and either they’re bringing in their mail-in ballots, or they’re making sure their registrations are in order, or sometime they’re registering. So the activity is going to be pretty heightened and that’s not unusual for us,” Midgette said. “We typically see that kind of activity on the last day of registration.”