Early in-person voting ahead of Election Day has now surpassed vote by mail totals.

744,000 people have now voted early, in-person as of Thursday, with more than 714,000 people casting a vote by mail for a total of nearly one and a half million early votes in this election.

That represents 22% of the total electorate.

Democrats continue to lead in early voting, with 47% of early votes, both in-person and mail in ballots.

Republicans so far make up of nearly 30%.

The last date for early in-person voting is Sunday, but of course, a third way to vote is in-person on Election Day.

The US Department of Justice plans to monitor election sites in Bergen, Middlesex and Union counties to make sure federal voting rights laws are enforced.

The additional election security comes as there have been incidents of ballot box tampering in other states like Washington and Oregon, as well as misinformation circulating across various platforms.

So could this impact voter trust, this election?

And if so, how is Jersey addressing potential risk to election integrity?

For that and more, I'm joined by senior writer Colleen Audette.

Colleen, thanks for joining me.

Thank you, Raven.

A lot to talk about.

A lot to talk about.

Okay.

So we know that former President Donald Trump's false claims about voter fraud in Pennsylvania have raised fears, concerns.

They're drawing parallels to the rhetoric we heard back in 2020.

How does this misinformation impact the election today?

You know, we have heard from folks in counties throughout the state actually who say they're just getting inundated with calls, you know, things that didn't happen eight years ago, nine years ago, before Donald Trump started running about, you know, how do I know my votes are going to be counted?

How do we know?

You know, these things aren't happening?

How do we know this is safe?

How do we know the results will be accurate?

So, you know, they're they're having to field all of those questions and the messages that we have so many safeguards in our system in New Jersey that people really can feel confident and comfortable that your vote is safe and secure and it will be counted properly.

Do they just need to stick to the facts then?

Because that's hard when it's on various platforms, right?

Right.

Right.

You know, the idea is that a statement gets made and then it just gets magnified almost instantaneously.

They also get amplified on some conservative media.

And so it seems like some people, depending on what your media appetite is, are being bombarded by these things.

Well, let's stick on that thought.

Let's think about when we think about threats to election security.

Recently, we know there has been ballot tampering in Washington and Oregon.

It's kind of scary to see that, you know.

What measures, if any, here in New Jersey are being taken.

So people do feel confident and they feel good about voting.

So we have ballot boxes just like they have out West.

We have not, thankfully, suffered any kind of tampering, issues like that.

Those are under 24 hour camera security.

They are checked regularly and cleaned out regularly by election officials.

There are other ways to get your vote by mail ballot in.

You can put it in the post office, use the Postal service.

And as long as you get it postmarked before close of polls on Tuesday, it should get there in time because we give an extra week almost to count those ballots that might come in late as long as they're postmarked.

You can also drop it off in person at your county elections office.

So there are ways to get it if you vote by mail.

If you're a vote by mail person, there are ways to get that in besides the ballot boxes.

We know misinformation, Disinformation has been really critical in the past election and could play a major part in this election.

Clearly, that's why we're here.

We're here to make sure that people are receiving correct and accurate information and feel good when they go out to vote.

Right.

Well, we as we look ahead and we think about we now have less than four days.

How important is that?

Not just for when for who goes out to vote, but how people accept the results of of the vote?

Yeah, One thing that people should really be cognizant of is that it is highly unlikely that we're going to know who the the president of the United States is on Tuesday night because of the times that polls close, because of the closeness of races, because of the different ways that states count their ballots.

So, you know, it can take days.

Last four years ago, it took until Saturday, I believe, after the election.

So people should really be very calm and not expect to see results.

Then in New Jersey, we're likely to see a lot of results because we are a blue state for federal elections, because our districts are drawn in such a way that one party or the other is likely to win.

That may be different in the seventh District, where too often is challenging.

Tom Kean Jr.

So that's one of those.

But again, New Jersey results, we might not see them all.

And you will be keeping us updated as soon as we see those results coming in Colleen, all day, thank you so much.

Excellent reporting per.

Usual.

Thank you for having me, Raven.