Lakewood’s voter turnouts in primary and general elections are never good, but this week’s Republican and Democratic primaries had a particularly abysmal turnout.
Lakewood, which has 62,327 registered voters – easily making it one of the most powerful voting blocs in the state – turned out just 2,616 voters in the Republican primary and 1,341 voters in the Democratic primary.
That means that just 6.3% of registered voters bothered to have their voice heard. To make matters even worse, there are thousands more residents in Lakewood who are able to vote, but have never registered, meaning the total turnout of all potential voters was likely below 5%.
For some perspective, more than 8% of registered voters in New Jersey cast a primary ballot via absentee or mail-in ballot. Meaning, a higher percentage of voters across New Jersey voted before Primary Day than voters in Lakewood did before and on Primary Day.
