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Cory Booker Doing Well on Mail-In Ballots

A Star-Ledger review of mail-in ballots reveals the Newark mayor is getting a big boost some 85 miles from home in Camden County, which already has collected more mail-in ballots than the next 13 counties combined.

In the four-way scrum for the Democratic nomination to replace the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Cory Booker is winning.

Winning in the polls. Winning on social media. Winning in fundraising.

And, by all accounts, he’s even winning the battle to pick off early voters in the Aug. 13 primary.

A Star-Ledger review of mail-in ballots reveals the Newark mayor is getting a big boost some 85 miles from home in Camden County, which already has collected more mail-in ballots than the next 13 counties combined.

Camden County — home to George Norcross, arguably the state’s most powerful Democrat and the first party leader to endorse Booker — already has collected at least 4,620 mail-in ballots, mostly from Democrats, significantly outpacing the others.

And records show the county clerk’s office has had more than 12,000 requests for mail-ins as of Thursday.

Even Bergen County, a much larger area with the next highest number of mail-in ballots returned, had received only 1,118 as of Wednesday.

Party officials in Camden County acknowledged the robust mail-in effort was largely intended to bolster Booker’s candidacy.

While Camden Democrats long have valued the political potency of mail-in-ballots — the county is only one of two in the state that pays the voter’s postage — leaders say the ballots will hold even more power in this highly unusual primary in which turnout is expected to reach historic lows.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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