What Time Do Polls Open in New Jersey on Election Day? 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday — and Monday's 3 p.m. Mail-Ballot Deadline Comes First
Early voting is over. What remains is one Monday errand for voters who still need a mail ballot, and then a 14-hour Election Day: polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday across New Jersey and close at 8 p.m.
It is the simplest question of the election, and on the last full day before it, it is the one New Jersey voters are asking most: polls open at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, November 3, and close at 8 p.m., in every municipality in the state. The nine days of in-person early voting that carried this election since October 24 ended Sunday at 6 p.m., so Tuesday's polling place — the one assigned to your address, not any early-voting site in your county — is now the only in-person option left.
Monday still holds one deadline that matters. A voter who wants a mail ballot can apply in person at the County Clerk's office until 3 p.m. Monday. A mail ballot already in hand can be returned to a secure drop box or the County Board of Elections by 8 p.m. on Election Day, or mailed with a postmark by Election Day and received by November 9 — but it cannot be handed in at a polling place on Tuesday. Voters who registered by mail and are voting for the first time should bring identification, or be ready to vote provisionally and cure it within 48 hours, the rule this desk detailed Sunday night.
At the top of Tuesday's ballot is the U.S. Senate race: Democratic incumbent Cory Booker, seeking a third full term, against Republican Justin Murphy and three other listed candidates, with all 12 of New Jersey's U.S. House seats also on the ballot. If you are in line when the polls close at 8 p.m., the standing rule of every New Jersey election applies — stay in line. The 6 a.m. opening, on a morning forecast to start in the low 40s and warm to near 70, is the last appointment this long election has left.
