Election

The outcome of the Nov. 4 election for Stratford Borough Council continues to hinge on four disputed absentee ballots. A recount yesterday of the tallies on the voting machines in the borough's six voting districts showed no change in the count that narrowly kept Republicans in 4-2 control of the six-member council. But Camden County Superior Court Judge Paul A. Lowengrub yesterday tentatively scheduled a hearing for Dec. 2 on the absentee ballots, which were disqualified before the election by county election officials.

Charles Leighton, chairman of the Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors, announced Wednesday night that he would not seek re-election in the May 19 primary. Leighton, a vice president of regulating affairs for Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Blue Bell, said that trying to balance personal, business and township commitments would have been too hard during the six- year board term. "I am happy with the township administration," Leighton said. "But I thought it wasn't fair to enter into a six-year commitment I knew I couldn't finish.

In a close election for the leadership of the 115,000-member Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Dr. Roy George Almquist of West Chester defeated incumbent Bishop Michael G. Merkel. The election was held during the synod assembly, which ran from Thursday until yesterday. Almquist, 54, won with 218 votes to 212 on the fifth ballot. He will serve a six-year term heading the synod, which embraces the five-county Greater Philadelphia area and includes 178 congregations.

Henry Kissinger once said that academic struggles are so ruthless because the stakes are so low. The U.S. presidential election season, which began in earnest this week, is going to be as vicious, and as petty, as one of those academic battles .... Does it matter who prevails in November? Yes, it does. While both candidates say this election is "about the future," they both know it's about the past - that it's a referendum on the past eight years. Gore is basically saying that Clinton is better than Quayle, while Bush is saying that the country can't afford more Clintonism.

The six North Wales residents who asked a Montgomery County Court judge last week to appoint overseers to ensure the integrity of today's primary election have withdrawn their petition, claiming victory. The petitioners alleged Republican wrongdoing at the borough's Ward 2 polling place during the November general election. Now they have said that with the awareness they raised through their petition, they believe corruption is unlikely. Republican Committeewoman Donna Mengel, one of those accused of wrongdoing in the petition, said of the latest withdrawal: "They threw a stink bomb and ran like dogs with their tails between their legs.

The state attorney general has decided to file an appeal seeking an expedited decision on a federal judge's ruling that threatens the planned Nov. 5 election for a U.S. Senate seat, according to government officials. The appeal would remove pressure on the legislature to find an alternative to a system - struck down by the federal court Monday - that allowed the political parties, rather than the voters, to choose nominees for the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. John Heinz.

Winning overwhelming support from union delegates representing teachers and building-trades workers, Edward F. Toohey last night was declared the winner of a new three-year term as president of the Philadelphia Council of the AFL- CIO. It was the 10th time that he was elected to the post in his 21-year tenure. Toohey's opponent, Daniel Sullivan, immediately said he would contest the election based on Toohey's refusal in recent weeks to disclose information about the voting eligibility of some union members.

ISTILL THINK the election was rigged. One person voted for Kerry (on an electronic machine ) and it came up Bush. How many more machines had this "problem" and no one noticed? I heard that a lot of Hispanics, Native Americans and black people were denied a vote. What about the absentee ballots? The military ballots? Kerry conceded before all the votes were counted; it was planned this way. Just another Republican joke. Maxine Walker, Philadelphia I had forgotten how much fun it is to watch frustrated Democrats eat their young after an election defeat.

It's the environment. Talk of open space and responsible development dominated a debate last night by the four candidates for two seats on the Voorhees Township Committee in next month's election, with each one citing environmental concerns as the top priority for local government the next few years. About 30 people attended the forum, sponsored by the Voorhees Environmental and Recreational Alliance and the Camden County League of Women Voters, to hear from Republicans Ron Richards and Frank Sansone and Democrats Harry Platt and Dean Mazurek.

Hours after the Democrats won a decisive victory for control of Camden County, the freeholders were back to business yesterday, discussing the financing of a new county college branch and reviewing construction problems with the recently completed jail. The freeholder meeting proceeded with scarcely a word about Tuesday's election, in which Freeholder Director Robert E. Andrews and running mate Maria Barnaby Greenwald triumphed to give the Democrats an 18th year of uninterrupted control of the county.