Early voting begins in NJ special election • New Jersey Monitor

Early in-person voting in primary races for the special election to fill Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s vacant House seat began Thursday.

Voters in the 11th Congressional District will choose which of the 11 Democrats running to replace Sherrill in Congress will win their party’s nod. Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is unopposed on the Republican side. The election is on Thursday, Feb. 5.

The six-day early voting period for the district’s special election will run until Feb. 3, and voters can cast in-person votes before Election Day at any early polling station in their county.

The 11th District includes towns in Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties.

Ex-Rep. Malinowski leads fundraising in special House race

Essex County will open five early in-person polling stations, while Morris County will operate six, and Passaic County will run three. The state maintains a list of those sites, which are open between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., or until 6 p.m. on Sunday.

The Democratic field to succeed Sherrill is broad. The candidates are Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, U.S. Army veteran Zachary Beecher, attorney J-L Cauvin, former Obama White House staffer Cammie Croft, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, Morris Township Deputy Mayor Jeff Grayzel, former Rep. Tom Malinowski, activist Analilia Mejia, Chatham Borough Councilman and U.S. Army veteran Justin Strickland, former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, and activist Anna Lee Williams.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Hathaway in the general election on Thursday, April 16.

Those dates are unusual ones for elections — even special elections — because they fall on Thursdays. State, federal, and local elections are almost always held on Tuesdays. Former Gov. Phil Murphy scheduled the races for Thursdays before he left office, and at a campaign event for Gill earlier this month, Murphy himself said the timing concerned him.

“A Thursday election in the middle of the winter,” he said.

The eventual winner will serve out the remainder of Sherrill’s unexpired House term, which ends Jan. 3, 2027. The district’s voters will vote again in June primaries and in November’s general election for a more permanent successor.