Statewide primary elections will be held today for all 80 seats in New Jersey’s State Assembly. New Jersey is comprised of 40 multi-member districts, with two representatives from each district.
In Democratic and Republican primaries, the top two vote-getters from each party advance to the general election, and the top two vote recipients in the general election become the district representatives in the Assembly.
The New Jersey General Assembly is currently comprised of 54 Democrats and 26 Republicans. Democrats also control the state’s Senate and the governors office, one of 14 Democratic trifectas in the United States. 76 of the 80 Assembly incumbents are running for reelection, meaning 5% of the Assemblies seats are open.
New Jersey utilizes a semi-closed primary process, in which the selection of a party’s candidates in an election is generally limited to registered party members. Unaffiliated voters can register as party members at the polls on primary election day.
The majority of candidates on both Republican and Democratic tickets are running unopposed.
In the 30th district, which represents Lakewood, incumbent Republicans Ned Thomson and Sean Kean are running unopposed. Jason Celik, a 38-year old resident of Howell and a student of political science at Rutgers University and Peter Farkas are the only candidates on the Democratic ticket.
Locally, incumbent Isaac Akerman is running unopposed for the Republican nomination, and Moshe Raitzik for the Democratic nomination.
The polls are open from 6 AM until 8 PM.
