Absentee Ballots

Warren Branch lost three votes to incumbent Vernon E. Crider when dozens of absentee ballots were counted yesterday. But he still appears set to take the District 13 seat in the Baltimore City Council. Branch led Crider by 48 votes with fewer than an estimated 100 provisional and absentee ballots left to be tallied next week. At the start of yesterday's count, Branch held a 51-vote lead over Crider. Of the 64 ballots tallied, Crider gained 18 votes, followed by Branch's 15. The other three candidates split the remaining 31 votes.

Wayne Dougherty edged past Gary Wasielewski to become the next mayor of Havre de Grace after a count yesterday of absentee ballots. The 57 absentee ballots gave Dougherty, a City Council member for six years, the winning margin by 47 votes. Dougherty had 756 votes while Wasielewski trailed with 709. The two candidates were separated by 38 votes after citizens cast ballots in Tuesday's election. Eight provisional ballots remain to be counted next week. Dougherty, a retired member of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, will serve a two-year term and replaces John Correri Jr., who came up short in his bid for re-election Tuesday.

Hampstead's incumbent mayor and two incumbent councilmen, who won re-election by narrow margins, will be sworn in for further four-year terms at tonight's Town Council meeting.For Mayor Christopher M. Nevin and Councilmen Stephen A. Holland and Lawrence H. Hentz, victory in Tuesday's municipal election means the opportunity to "continue pushing forward with ongoing projects," Nevin said.The mayor was alluding to their goals of completing the new police station, improving the water system, revitalizing the Main Street business district downtown, making progress on the development of the town bypass, and continuing a balanced approach to growth.

Baltimore elections officials said they will begin counting absentee ballots today that could decide the outcome of the Republican primary for the 6th District City Council seat.Four Republican candidates ran for nominations to three seats on the City Council. One candidate, Joseph Brown Jr., held a commanding lead in unofficial results from election night.But three other candidates vying for the other two nominations were within 28 votes of each other, according to unofficial results. The outcome remains uncertain because 48 absentee ballots were mailed out to Republican voters in the district, said Marvin Cheatham, president of the city Elections Board.

Two of Baltimore's high-profile Democratic mayoral candidates launched yesterday a barrage of more than 320 television commercials targeting undecided voters during the final weekend of the campaign while a third is targeting African-American voters in particular by saturating certain cable television shows with more than 700 spots scheduled to run before Tuesday's primary.The blitz came on a day when a candidate for City Council president had to clarify an "endorsement" from NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, city elections officials noted a rise in absentee ballots and campaigns took to city street corners with workers waving at intersections clogged with honking drivers flashing the thumbs-up sign.

About 3,100 absentee votes will be counted today to determine the winner of the Howard County state's attorney race, in which Democrat Timothy J. McCrone held a slight lead over Republican incumbent Marna L. McLendon after Tuesday's voting.In a race few political analysts expected to be neck-and-neck, McCrone was on top with 37,445 votes, compared with McLendon's 37,279, a difference of 166. Officials at the county's Board of Election Supervisors will count the absentee ballots in front of anxious McLendon and McCrone supporters.

With nine votes separating the top two contenders, the GOP nomination for state comptroller will not be decided before Monday, when absentee ballots are to be counted in Prince George's County.Through yesterday -- when election officials finished counting absentee ballots in Baltimore and 22 of the state's 23 counties -- Owings Mills accountant Larry M. Epstein led Washington County banker Timothy R. Mayberry 42,566 to 42,557."You're kidding me," Robert J. Antonetti Sr., administrator of the Prince George's County election board, said when told that nine votes -- of more than 182,000 votes cast -- separated the two candidates.

At the urging of a group working to ensure the integrity of the Maryland election, a federal judge in Baltimore has temporarily stopped the mass mailing of absentee ballots to nursing home residents in the city and four rural counties.Citizens for Democratic Elections says such distributions can lead to voter fraud by nursing home administrators.U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson issued a temporary restraining order yesterday prohibiting the election boards in Baltimore and in Frederick, Queen Anne's, Caroline and Dorchester counties from mailing the ballots.

Two Republican incumbents retained their seats in the House of Delegates yesterday when Baltimore County elections officials counted absentee ballots and declared Donald E. Murphy a winner in the Catonsville area and James F. Ports Jr. the victor in Parkville.Elections officials were scheduled today to continue counting about 6,300 absentee ballots to confirm the winner in the county sheriff's race. When the polls closed Tuesday night, challenger Anne K. Strasdauskas appeared to be the winner, leading incumbent Republican Norman M. Pepersack Jr. by 5,112 votes.

As two candidates in a photo finish for the GOP nomination for state comptroller awaited a final tally that may not arrive until next week, Republican gubernatorial nominee Ellen R. Sauerbrey's choice for the post acknowledged yesterday that he had lost the race.Election officials were preparing yesterday to begin counting as many as 7,800 absentee ballots in order to name a winner in the race between Larry M. Epstein, the party's 1990 nominee for comptroller, and Timothy R. Mayberry, the 1994 Republican nominee.

Obama names transition teams for 3 agencies WASHINGTON: President-elect Barack Obama has named a team heavy on experience in the Clinton administration to help guide transition efforts in the State, Defense and Treasury departments. In a statement yesterday, Obama revealed the agency review team leaders who will be responsible for reviewing budgets, personnel and policy in the three departments. All six served in some capacity under President Bill Clinton. The Treasury team leads are Josh Gotbaum, an investment fund adviser who has experience in multiple federal agencies; and Michael Warren, chief operating officer of advisory firm Stonebridge International who was executive director of the President's National Economic Council.

An unprecedented surge in registrations, heightened interest in the presidential and congressional races and organized efforts to get voters to the polls did not give Harford County the record turnout many officials expected. "Given the interest and the high numbers in the morning, I thought we were headed toward 90 percent," said James E. Massey, director of the county Board of Elections. "Toward evening, things got quiet, and we ended the day with a 76 percent turnout." Presidential elections typically draw large numbers, with this year's tally at 114,000 voters, he said.

Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. was "encouraged" by the Associated Press' decision yesterday to call the closely fought 1st Congressional District race in his favor but said it was not yet time to celebrate. "I am honored and humbled by the support I've received in this election and am clearly encouraged by where the numbers stand and the subsequent Associated Press announcement," he said in a statement. "Right now, my top priority is making sure that every vote is counted and every voice is heard."

Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. saw his slim lead over Republican Andy Harris more than double yesterday as election judges began to open absentee ballots in the 1st Congressional District. In totals that now include absentee ballots from Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties - Republican strongholds where Harris had hoped to close the gap with his rival - Kratovil has expanded his lead to more than 1,800 votes. The 40-year-old prosecutor from the Eastern Shore now appears on the verge of an upset in a district that has been held by the GOP since 1991, a victory that would give Democrats their seventh out of Maryland's eight House seats and further increase the party's congressional majority.

With tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted, the bitterly fought House race between Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. and Republican Andy Harris is unlikely to be settled before the end of next week, state officials said yesterday. Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County, led Harris, a state senator from Cockeysville, by fewer than 1,000 of the more than 329,000 votes cast Tuesday in the contest for the seat now held by longtime Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest. The tally doesn't include the more than 25,000 absentee ballots that elections officials are to begin counting today.

With more than 13,000 absentee ballots to be counted, the top vote-getters in the race for the Howard County school board expressed cautious optimism yesterday at the election results but refrained from claiming victory. Current board members Janet Siddiqui and Ellen Flynn Giles and challenger Allen Dyer led the field of six candidates vying for three open seats on the board in Tuesday's election. Diana Butler was in fourth place, just slightly more than 1,000 votes behind Dyer. The counting of the absentee ballots will begin today and final results are expected to be available Nov. 14, said Betty Nordaas, the county's elections administrator.

For: Early Voting; Polling Places; Absentee Ballots "Authorizes the General Assembly to enact legislation to allow qualified voters to vote at polling places inside or outside of their election districts or wards and to vote up to two weeks before an election. This amendment also authorizes the General Assembly to enact legislation to allow absentee voting by qualified voters who choose to vote by absentee ballot, in addition to voters who are absent at the time of the election or who are unable to vote personally."

Maryland officials are urging voters to double-check precinct locations so their ballots are counted on Election Day, when an exceptionally high turnout is expected. State elections administrator Linda H. Lamone said yesterday that nine out of 10 registered voters might turn out Nov. 4 in some parts of the state, and she expects a statewide participation rate of about 85 percent. That would eclipse the most recent high of 81 percent in 1992. Four years ago, 78 percent of registered voters went to the polls.

Harford County residents are registering to vote in record numbers, often as many as 500 daily in the days preceding the registration deadline at 9 p.m. Tuesday. The heightened interest has officials predicting an unprecedented 90 percent turnout on Nov. 4. The Board of Elections will remain open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow, the Columbus Day holiday, and Tuesday to accommodate what officials expect to be a crush of last-minute registrations. "Typically, registration goes up in a presidential election, when there is always more interest," said James E. Massey, director of Harford's Board of Elections.

Warren Branch lost three votes to incumbent Vernon E. Crider when dozens of absentee ballots were counted yesterday. But he still appears set to take the District 13 seat in the Baltimore City Council. Branch led Crider by 48 votes with fewer than an estimated 100 provisional and absentee ballots left to be tallied next week. At the start of yesterday's count, Branch held a 51-vote lead over Crider. Of the 64 ballots tallied, Crider gained 18 votes, followed by Branch's 15. The other three candidates split the remaining 31 votes.