Early Voting Begins Friday Ahead Of New Jersey Primary Election
BLACKWOOD, N.J. (CBS) -- Early in-person voting in New Jersey began Friday. It's the second time voters have been able to cast early votes in person.
At the Camden County Board of Elections and Archives Center in Blackwood, a steady stream of early voters trickled in Friday, the first day of early in-person voting.
"A lot of people don't want to do vote by mail. Those who don't want to do vote by mail can do the in-person and they feel as if their vote counts differently if they do in-person," Camden County Board of Elections Democratic Administrator Nellie McFadden said.
For the first time, early voters in New Jersey can cast their ballots in person for the primary election. Last year was the first time they could cast their early ballots in person for a general election.
"We have seven locations here in Camden County available to the voters," Camden County Board of Elections Republican Administrator Sarah Booker said.
There are no statewide races in this year's primary. At the top of the ticket are the U.S. House races for each of the state's 12 congressional districts.
"We've had a decent mail-in ballot turnout. We've received over 38,000 mail-in ballots and those can of course continue to be delivered to us until the close of polls on election night," Booker said.
After voters check in, they get a voter card, which they insert into the voting machine. The machine will pull up their ballot on a touchscreen and after they've cast their ballot, the machine will print the ballot out. They take it over to a machine, which will scan and collect the ballot in a bin at the bottom.
"It's different because the machines are a totally new system, but it's a lot easier, I think," voter Hilda Rodriguez said.
Early voting ends on Sunday.
Primary election day is Tuesday next week. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
