ROXBURY - There was quite the commotion inside the voting area Tuesday morning at the local high school.

Problem was those chatting and having fun were poll workers. At the time, there was only one voter - me.

Much has been written - and will continue to be written - about public indifference.

"With everything going on, people have to care about something," was what one of the poll workers said. He did have plenty of time to chat.

Then again ....

This is a primary, which by definition reduces the pool of voters. Independents, or unaffiliated voters, can take part in primaries but very few of them do.

This raises a pertinent question.

Why would someone register as a Democrat or a Republican and not vote in primaries? What's the point of picking a party if you don't pay attention to primaries?

On the positive side, the early voting at both the polls and by mail has been pretty good. As of Tuesday, about 480,000 people had voted early - about 344,000 Democrats and 135,000 Republicans.

But just for the record, there are about 2.4 million registered Democrats in the state and 1.6 million Republicans. Only a minority of them figure to vote.

It's as if there are two worlds out there - next to each other but different.

One includes office holders, candidates and their core supporters, party members,  the press and those conscientious enough to always vote.

But then we have a much larger world filled with those who simply don't care, or even understand why voting is important. Ugh!

Blame must go not to the politicians, the media, or anyone else. It rests with an indifferent public.

Moving back into that smaller world, many of the candidates wrapped things up in different ways.

Mikie Sherrill spent election eve appearing with Brian Stack in Union City. Stack, who is both mayor and state senator, also has a reputation for turning out the vote.

Josh Gottheimer's schedule included stops at train stations in Bergen County where he must do well to have a chance.

Steve Fulop was barnstorming the state, as if it were still two weeks before the election. He had stops set for such places as Marlboro, Edison (where he grew up), Westfield and South Orange.

Ras Baraka, true to his progressive roots, was seen on social media giving a sidewalk speech in which he ended with some rhetoric - "The power of the people is stronger than the people in power."

On the GOP side. Bill Spadea held a rally Monday evening in Stafford Township in Ocean County. He needs to do very well there if he has any chance of upsetting Jack Ciattarelli.

As for "Jack," as his campaign signs say, he had scheduled the last stop of the campaign for a pizzeria in his hometown of Raritan.