By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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New Jersey voters could really turn out in droves Tuesday in this midterm election like no other.

While President Donald Trump isn't on the ballot, fired-up Democrats who want to put a check on the Republican president by taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives know at least part of the road goes through New Jersey.

Seats that were once considered safely Republican are now up for grabs. Of New Jersey's five Republican-held U.S. House seats, two are favored to turn blue and two others are tossups, according to the Cook Political Report.

Republicans, meanwhile, are battling to win a Jersey U.S. Senate election for the first time since 1972.

Both Senate candidates Both Senate candidates — Democratic incumbent Robert Menendez and Republican challenge Bob Hugin — criss-crossed the state Saturday in the frenetic last-weekend-of-an-election ritual of ginning up enthusiasm so their supporters will get out and vote Tuesday.

But this year is different: The electorate is already charged up.

"This is an interesting year because unlike most midterms, people are highly mobilized," said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.

Harrison called the current vote-by-mail returns "historic" and predicted turnout will be much higher than in previous mid-term elections, which historically have very low turnout.

In 2014, only 36 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

Here's a look at how Republicans and Democrats are rallying their bases and how it's looking for a possible swarm of voters on Tuesday:

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Early voting numbers already top all of 2014

Technically, voting has already begin.

Hundreds of thousands of mail-in-ballots have been sent out and returned to election officials. By Friday, the number of people who voted by mail this year more than doubled compared to people who mailed their ballots in during the 2014 mid-term elections, according to the state's Division of Elections.

In 2014, there were 143,094 vote by mail ballots cast, Trudi Gilfillian, of the New Jersey Secretary of State's office said.

As of Friday, officials received more than 277,200 mail ballots.

And that number is likely to increase by Tuesday considering the state sent out a total of 554,411 mail ballots.

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Party ID breakdown

Democrats in the Garden State and beyond hoping for a blue wave this November can look to New Jersey's voter registration as a sign of encouragement. That's because New Jersey is getting bluer.

The number of registered Democrats outpaced Republicans by more than 100,000 people between the 2016 primaries and now, according to August statistics from the state's Division of Elections.

Democrats enrolled 193,590 new party members between July 2016 and July 2018. Republicans only added 92,865.

And Democratic registration increased in three of the four congressional districts the party hopes to flip this November in a midterm election seen as a referendum on Trump.

Adding to the possible headache for Garden State Republicans is that Democrats have added double the amount of registered voters compared to their GOP counterparts compared to this time ahead of the last midterm elections in 2014

According to the latest figures, Democrats added more than 402,000 registered voters between now and this time in 2014, compared to Republican's gain of a little less than half of that, only 195,989.

Currently , there are 2,199,322 registered Democrats and 1,277,791 registered Republicans. There are 2,361,046 unaffiliated voters in the state.

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Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (left) and his Republican challenger, Bob Hugin (right). (Photos by The Associated Press)

Senate candidates push hard to get out the vote

At the top of the ticket in New Jersey, U.S. Senate candidates Menendez and Hugin spent Saturday pushing hard to get their voters to the polls.

It caps off a tough and nasty campaign that was deemed a "tossup" by Cook a week ago.

Hugin has spent $36 million of his own money hammering Menendez on corruption charges the senator beat in court, though he was "severely admonished" for by the Senate. Menendez has responded by hitting Hugin's record as the head of the pharmaceutical company Celgene and saying he would not stand up to Trump.

Both kept up those themes Saturday.

Ahead of one of seven rallies Hugin had on his weekend schedule, Hugin took to Twitter and said: "This election isn't about political parties it's about right & wrong. That's why Democrats are nervous. They know NJ deserves so much better than 6 more years of @BobMenendezNJ's corruption."

His get-out-the-vote rallies will spill into Monday, where he'll be in Ocean, Union and Morris counties.

Menendez had nearly a dozen events planned Saturday and Sunday, mostly in Democratic strongholds.

At a rally in Paterson, he said: "We have three days. Three days to stop Trump. Three days to change the course of the country. Three days for a check and balance. Three days for a victory. Three days to take out country back."

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How big-time local races could bring out the vote

The primary election was proof that Menendez couldn't take his re-election bid for granted. One-in-four New Jerseyans voted for his Democratic challenger, an unknown who didn't raise or spend any money on the race.

So while voters in Democrat-heavy New Jersey may head to the polls as a referendum on Trump or because they're energized by their congressional race, Menendez also has something else working in his favor: Local Democratic groups urging people to the polls for down-ballot races.

Take Essex County, for example. It's the state's third most populated county. But it's No. 1 when it comes to Democratic voter registration. Essex County has more than 260,000 registered Democrats compared to only 50,263 Republicans. Essex County also has its power county executive, Joe DiVincenzo, on the ballot.

Having big local names like DiVincenzo on a ballot ensures local Democrats will get out the vote.

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Women voters could be critical this election

Harrison, the Montclair State professor, said women voters "will be crucial" for some candidates — including in the race for U.S. Senate, where "women are overwhelmingly favoring" Menendez.

"In this year when even though Donald Trump is not on the ballot, there’s obviously a lot of reaction to him and that is going to impact these elections," said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers-Eagleton. "And I think Democrat candidates are looking to how they can mobilize and engage women voters and get them out to the polls on Tuesday."

For candidates, that means using their ads to target potential women voters or those who have soured on the president, Walsh said.

"The place where we’ve seen the most drop-off for Trump was among white, educated women," she said. "If those women feel there needs to be some kind of a check on Donald Trump, then voting for Democrats in the House is one way to do that."

Menendez plans to wind up his Sunday campaign schedule with a women's rally in Plainfield.

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National groups are out in force

National groups have poured money and resources into New Jersey and its races.

The Republican National Committee has 10 staffers in the the state, four offices and said they have more than 500 volunteers who are knocking on doors and making calls.

“With several competitive congressional races and a U.S. Senate race between a corrupt Democrat incumbent and a strong Republican challenger, the RNC is on the ground and organized in the Garden State," RNC spokeswoman Ellie Hockenbury said.

"Working closely with our partners at the New Jersey Republican Party, our sophisticated ground and data operation will give Republican candidates an edge as we work to keep our majorities and continue delivering results for New Jersey voters," Hockenbury added.

Democrats, meanwhile, by way of the Democratic National Committee, have spent more than $1.4 million in the Garden State to help with local races and support congressional campaigns that could flip, DNC spokeswoman Elizabeth Renda said.

"This Tuesday, Democrats have the opportunity to flip multiple congressional districts from red to blue because our candidates are running on fighting for New Jersey's working families, while Republicans are running on serving as rubber stamps for Donald Trump's dangerous agenda in New Jersey," Renda said.

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How tragic news has renewed the mission of other groups

The Jewish Democratic Council of America is an example of a group that has been involved in New Jersey's congressional and Senate elections, but has felt a renewed effort to send a message to Trump and the GOP because of recent events, said the group's executive director, Halie Soifer.

"I think the tragic events of Pittsburgh have only underscored what the Jewish community has seen over the past two years, and that is that Donald Trump’s hateful rhetoric and policies have legitimize and embolden anti-semitism," Soifer said, referring to the mass shooting at a Pennsylvania synagogue last month that left 11 people dead.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America made a six-figure ad buy in New Jersey newspapers and on social media to target Jewish voters.

The Pittsburgh shooting "only galvanized what we know to be a failure of leadership on (Trump's) part and a failure of leadership of Republicans," Soifer said.

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Phil Murphy is pounding the pavement for Democrats

Menendez and other Democrats on the ballot have been by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy 's side for much of his gubernatorial events over the past week.

When Murphy marked the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, Menendez was next to him. And the governor heaped praise on Menendez, saying, "I don't know where we'd be without Sen. Bob Menendez. Everyone has to understand the centrality of the role that he played (in getting federal disaster relief funding)."

Menendez was again by his side. Later in the week, when Murphy announced a new state website to promote Affordable Care Act open enrollment,

"The guy to my left helped write the Affordable Care Act," Murphy said. "If you think the Affordable Care Act is a good thing, he helped write it."

And Murphy is stumping for Menendez and other Democrats is picking up up in the days leading to Tuesday.

The governor planned more than a half-dozen public events over the weekend, with stops planned in Passaic, Essex, Bergen and Somerset counties on Saturday. On Sunday, he'll be in Middlesex, Cape May and Atlantic counties.

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Yep, Tuesday is election day

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

For more information on how to vote and where your polling place is, visit the state's election website.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.