well already the state division of Elections reports more than 185,000 people have cast a ballot voting early by mail it's one of a few options available to you ahead of primary election day in which voters will select the nominees for a number of important races including the presidential one Senate and 12 congressional seats here in New Jersey not to mention County and local positions Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello joins me now to explain what you need to know before the big day Paula good to see you thanks so much for coming on the show so help me walk through what voters need to know in these final two weeks first and foremost what are their options for voting yes there are three options for voters in New Jersey you can vote by mail and most vote by mail ballots have been mailed out but you still can apply to vote by mail until May 28th through the mail by filling out an application and your county clerk will send it to you uh you can also vote early which we think is a wonderful option in New Jersey early voting can be done at any of your County's voting centers you don't have to go to your polling location and it's open from May 29th until June 2nd which means that you know it gives you the flexibility you can vote over the weekend and you can vote in the evenings and you can go to this voting Center so we really are encouraging people to take advantage of that because we know that there will be less crowds and less lines and then the third way to vote is to vote uh in person at your polls onction eltion day talk to me about what's different this year both within uh the system with the redistricting and also with ballots particularly if you plan to vote as a Democrat yes okay well the Democratic Bots have changed the format is different than it has been in the past in the past both Democratic and Republican ballots were in a line in most counties in New Jersey which meant that at the top of the ticket you would have the president in a presidential year the Senator if there was a senatorial candidate and then you would have your county and local candidates all in a row so you would have the benefit of coattails when you would vote down a line there was a lawsuit brought by uh uh Congressman Kim um this year to federal court and the federal court decided that the Democratic ballot he was was not uh fair and Equitable and that it needed to be in a block style because he granted him an injunction that means that you will now be voting by office so it'll see President you'll have all the candidates for president Senator all the candidates for Senator and everything will be in a block style not in a line now the Republicans are going to still have the line format because they didn't bring this lawsuit so and this was only for a temporary injunction it wasn't a permanent decision the Republicans are going to still have the line and they're going to be under President Trump from most counties because he's the endorsed candidate what can you what can you tell us Paul me let me jump in there what can you tell us I'll switch gears quickly um about um what you're seeing with early mailin ballots because primaries we know it's typically low turnout but all of these options right were intended to get more people to exercise their right to vote um are you seeing numbers that are consistent with what we typically see for a primary election or where are they at we have we have a strong turnout of Returns on our vote by mail ballots uh I believe that uh vote by mail does make it convenient people get them to their homes and so they fill them out and they return them we are seeing a strong turnout despite the fact that the presidential election while um contested is not hotly contested uh most people have um endorsed the two primary candidates that are running nationally but yes we're seeing we are having have a senate race as well and some others so we are seeing a higher turnout than expected for this year Paula Sollami cavello is the Mercer clerk Paula thanks so much for coming on to get us all up to speed thank you so much for having me