TOMS RIVER – While there are more registered voters, fewer of them went to the polls this presidential election compared to the last one.
Ocean County has been a Republican stronghold for decades so it’s no surprise that Donald Trump won it 222,812-103,760.
What may have surprised voters is that there were seven independent candidates for president on the ballot. Robert F. Kennedy was the strongest of them, despite the fact that he dropped out to endorse Trump. He got 1,956 votes. Randall Terry received 230; Claudia De la Cruz received 199; Rachele Fruit received 45; Chase Oliver received 580; Jill Stein received 861; and Joseph Kishore received 160. There were 880 write-ins.
Many third party votes are seen as a protest or a message. Third party voters generally know they won’t win but they want to show their support for a candidate and lower the numbers for the two established parties.
These figures are unofficial because it takes a few weeks for the elections board to certify the votes.
It’s easy to compare the election totals to previous campaigns because Trump was the common denominator in the last three presidential elections.
This year, there are 481,397 registered voters in Ocean County. Of this, 333,815 voted. It is 69.34% of the total.
In 2020, there were 442,976 registered voters. Of this, 346,059 voted. This was 78.12% of registered voters.
In 2016, there were 401,209 registered voters. Of this, 249,094 voted. This was 62.09% of registered voters.
These 2020 and 2016 figures are more accurate than the 2024 ones because they’ve been certified.
Another thing to keep in mind is that in 2020, we were still in the midst of COVID-19. A timeline on the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists “November 4, 2020: One day after the presidential election, the U.S. reports 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours.”
The pandemic is what caused the high voter turnout, said George Gilmore, head of the county Republicans and a member of the Board of Elections.
“Everyone was sent a ballot whether they wanted it or not,” he said.
In 2016, there were 29,202 mail-in ballots. There were a few provisional ballots but the rest were in person.
In 2020, mail-ins swelled to 335,596 – out of a total of 346,059. There were 10,280 provisional ballots and just 183 at polling locations that were for special instances.
In 2024, there were 56,488 mail-ins. There were only 168,244 ballots cast at polling places. However, for the first time during a presidential election, there were 108,853 ballots cast in early voting. There were also 230 Overseas Voting Turnout.
More Republican
In each of the three elections, Trump received more votes. In 2016, it was 179,079. This grew to 217,740 in 2020 and 222,812 this year.
Hillary Clinton received 87,150 votes in 2016. Joe Biden received 119,456 in 2020. Kamala Harris received 103,760 this year.
Gilmore noted that Ocean, compared to all the other counties in New Jersey, had the largest percentage difference between Trump and Harris, as well as between Senate candidates Curtis Bashaw and Andy Kim.
