The numbers are flowing in now after the rain dampened the earlier part of Election Day and Essex County, the home base of Democratic frontrunner Mikie Sherrill, by 6 p.m. surpassed the total from eight years ago.

When Phil Murphy ran for the vacant statewide seat in 2017, with the late Sheila Oliver on the ticket, Democrats hit 46K. At 6 p.m., 54K Democrats had turned out, leaving nearly 260K Democrats who still had not voted in today's primary election.

Essex County Democrats were nervous all morning.

They backed Sherrill, and heavy rains impaired early turnout.

The rain, one source said, was brutal.

Plus, Essex is not a vote-by-mail county.

But voting picked up when the rain died down.

Still, the totals in Essex and statewide overall hardly reflect the fact that this is the richest gubernatorial primary in New Jersey state history.

It just seems like any other ho hum primary for the most part.

Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin told InsiderNJ that President Barack Obama in 2012 recorded the last massive vote totals in a New Jersey general election.

Lines wrapped around the block.

But the primary total even in a Barack Obama election year stood at 50.7K.

Different times. Different dynamics.

What's interesting now, for the most part, is the out-performance by suburban Democrats of urban Dems, with places like Montclair astoundingly right on the turnout heels of Newark, for example.

There is a decided shift in the Democratic voting bloc to the elite suburbs, away from the urban centers.

Does it add up to an advantage for Sherrill?

Not necessarily.

There are three candidates from Essex: the congresswoman, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) President Sean Spiller.