In battleground Monmouth, both sides gain numbers to meet registration deadline day

Monmouth County Clerk Claire French reports that the county offices are extremely busy this evening as residents in the traditionally Republican-controlled central region try to meet voter registration deadline.

Of the Board of Elections, “That office is working into the wee hours,” French told PolitickerNJ.com.

Following the Feb. 5th Democratic Primary, Monmouth recorded 102,466 Democrats and 92,126 Republicans. As of this afternoon, those numbers had jumped to 119,785 registered Democrats and 108,545 registered Republicans in the battleground county with a big rush of registrants coming in the last two weeks, according to French.

267,226 Monmouth County voters remain unaffiliated.

“It’s not the Monmouth County of 30 years ago, but it’s still a different geography than New Jersey at large,” said state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), who said he is confident that unaffiliated voters in Monmouth still lean Republican and will decide the county in his party's favor come Election Day.

But Democrats like the new numbers.

“We elected (Freeholder) Barbara McMorrow with a 10,000 vote deficit (in 2006),” said party spokesman Michael Mangan. “Now we have 52,000 new Democrats since last year’s election. The Democratic energy is out there. Those are incredibly encouraging numbers to us.”

Prof. Patrick Murray of Monmouth University said the Democrats have an edge.

“Looking at the increase in registration, there are more Democratic-leaning than Republican,” said Murray. “Since last year, the Democrats have increased their county registration rolls by 25 percent, beating Republicans by a 2-1 ratio. I think the unaffiliated voters are going to lean similarly, which is toward the Democrats.”