TRENTON -- The race to replace Gov. Chris Christie is over, but a nagging question remains: Why did Virginia just take New Jersey to school when it comes to voter turnout?

The latest tally of votes by the Associated Press as of 9:16 a.m. on Wednesday had 2,019,665 votes being cast in the Garden State on Tuesday. According to the latest state Division of Elections data, 5,754,862 voters were registered to vote in Tuesday's election.

That puts our preliminary voter turnout at a laughably low 35.1 percent, well below even those predictions of a record-low turnout.

But in Virginia's governor's race, the turnout was the highest in 20 years, and more than 12 points higher.

While New Jersey's vote totals could change as the final 1 percent of precinct tallies are counted and reported, they are "abysmal," says Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray.

Murray had earlier predicted turnout was likely to be a record low, but still well above that on Election Day.

Turnout in #NJGov is on target for 37%. A record low for a gubernatorial (was 40% in 2013) — Patrick Murray (@PollsterPatrick) November 8, 2017

What happened?

Murray cautions that for one thing, not all the votes are in, and for another it's a mistake to conflate the number of votes for Murphy and Guadagno and other governor candidates with the numbers of voters who voted.

"There may be significant under voting at the gubernatorial level, because local (legislative and municipal) races were more competitive," said Murray on Wednesday morning. "Turnout is based on total number of voters who showed up, not votes cast for governor. Total turnout may be 36 percent, possibly as high as 37 percent if a lot of voters left their Governor ballots blank.

Still, regardless, of whether its 36 or 37 percent, Murray admitted results are "still abysmal."

So why do we get trounced by Virginians?

"The one thing that has been shown to increase turnout," he said, "is competitive elections."

Tuesday's victor, Democrat Phil Murphy, lead GOP nominee Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno by 12 points in a poll taken just before the election.

Meanwhile, in Virginia's hotly contested race, Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie were separated by just 2 percentage points ahead of Tuesday's vote.

The result? Virginia's turnout -- 47 percent -- was the highest in 20 years for a gubernatorial race, five percentage points and 10 percentage points higher than the last two races, respectively, according to the Washington Post.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.