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Murphy’s N.J. Lead Grows to 73,000 But No Ciattarelli Concession

Murphy’s N.J. Lead Grows to 73,000 But No Ciattarelli Concession

More than a week after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy won re-election, Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli has yet to concede. The Associated Press called the tight race for the Democratic incumbent on Nov. 3. Murphy now leads by 73,814 votes, according to the AP tally.

On Monday, Ciattarelli’s campaign said it would wait for all ballots to be tallied before deciding whether to concede or seek a recount. Technology errors resulted in voters casting about 70,000 provisional ballots, according to his campaign. Murphy said Monday that it’s “mathematically impossible” for the Republican to win.

Here’s a look at where things stand:

Tight race:

  • The margin is 2.9 percentage points -- 51.1% for Murphy and 48.2% for Ciattarelli, according to the AP.
  • Murphy’s lead has widened since AP called the race. At that time, his lead was about 29,000 votes.

Turnout:

  • About 2.6 million votes are in AP’s tally. That’s about 39% of registered voters.
  • There are some 820,000 additional registered voters in New Jersey since 2017, when Murphy was first elected.
  • Some 450,000 additional Democrats and 265,000 Republicans have registered since 2017.
  • Murphy has about 138,000 additional votes since 2017. Ciattarelli has some 347,000 more votes than the Republican candidate, Kim Guadagno, got in 2017.

County breakdown:

  • Murphy leads in seven of New Jersey’s 10 most populous counties.
  • The county giving the most votes so far to Murphy is Bergen, with 140,654.
  • Ciattarelli has the most votes from Ocean County -- 143,245.

Murphy support slips:

  • Murphy won 13 of 21 counties in 2017. This year, he is winning in 10 and Ciattarelli is leading in 11.
  • Atlantic County flipped from Democratic to Republican. Murphy’s support there fell by more than 10 points. Cumberland and Gloucester counties also flipped to the GOP.
  • Support in New Jersey’s largest county, Bergen, slid by 4.2 points. In Essex, support slipped by 5.9 points.

Early voting and mail-in ballots:

  • New Jersey for the first time allowed in-person early voting.
  • There were more than 500,000 vote-by-mail ballots. Two-thirds were from Democrats, according to analysis by the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.

What’s next:

  • Nov. 19: deadline for recount applications.
  • Nov. 20: deadline for county clerks to transmit official election results to state.
  • Dec. 2: deadline for meeting of Board of State Canvassers to certify general election results.

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