Election Day Is Tomorrow in New Jersey: The Final Checklist — Polls Open 6 A.M., Your Sample Ballot Names Your Polling Place, and the Mail Deadlines Split Three Ways
'How to vote in the US midterms' is still the country's live search on Election Eve. For New Jersey the plan is now a single day long: clerk by 3 p.m. today if you need a mail ballot in person, polls 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow, and three different return deadlines depending on how a mail ballot travels.
There is no voting in New Jersey today, and there is exactly one day of it left. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, and polls at your regular polling place are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The nine-day early in-person voting period ended Sunday, November 1, and the early voting sites do not reopen — tomorrow's vote happens only at your assigned polling place, the one printed on the sample ballot that was mailed to registered voters. Finding that page tonight, and confirming the address on it, is the single most useful thing a New Jersey voter can still do before the morning.
One window does close today. A registered voter who wants a mail-in ballot can still apply in person at their county clerk's office until 3 p.m. Monday. After that, the mail-ballot story is only about returning one already in hand, and the deadlines split by route: a ballot sent by mail must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day and received by the county Board of Elections by November 9; a ballot placed in an official secure drop box, or delivered in person to the county Board of Elections, must arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day itself. And the rule that catches someone out every cycle still applies: a completed mail-in ballot is not accepted at a regular polling place — do not carry it there expecting to hand it over.
So the Election Eve checklist for a New Jersey voter who has not yet voted is three lines long. Today, before 3 p.m.: the county clerk, but only if you still need to obtain a mail ballot in person. Tonight: find the sample ballot, confirm your polling place, and decide your hour — the 6 a.m. opening avoids the after-work crush, and anyone in line at 8 p.m. tomorrow votes. Tomorrow, by 8 p.m.: your vote cast at the polling place, or your completed mail ballot in a drop box or at the Board of Elections, or in the mail with tomorrow's postmark. After 8 p.m. Tuesday, every one of those windows is closed.
