Absentee Ballots

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.

Counts of absentee ballots have confirmed the election of two new county executives: Republican Charles I. Ecker in Howard County and Democrat Eileen M. Rehrmann in Harford County.Ecker, 61, finished 450 votes ahead of Democrat Elizabeth Bobo, 46, after a count of absentee ballots yesterday. Rehrmann, 45, defeated Republican Geoffrey R. Close, 42, by 775 votes.In Howard, Planning Director Uri Avin will pack his bags, but some of Bobo's top aides can relax -- for now. Ecker said he doesn't plan sweeping personnel changes in government, but said Avin will not be part of his administration.

With six telephone callers waiting and having just ushered along two voters who were trading insults after one accused the other of cutting in line, Yvette Finch managed a wink and a smile. "Thank you, Lord, that it ended peaceful," she said yesterday morning with a glance skyward as she sat down at her computer, picked up a blinking phone line and rapidly said, "Baltimore County Board of Elections, this is Yvette." Finch is the board's receptionist, and for the past two weeks she has fielded hundreds of phone calls daily and helped hundreds more complete duplicate absentee ballots at the office because the originals had not arrived at their homes.

Carroll County's 1,512 returned absentee ballot were counted last night, and they did not change the results of any of the races in Tuesday's election.Addition of the ballots to the total raised the official voter response to 68.9 percent. Of 64,452 registered voters in Carroll County, 44,426 cast ballots in the general election.The additional votes did not dislodge Gary W. Bauer from his hold on a school board seat. He and incumbent Carolyn Scott won the two seats. Mr. Bauer edged out Laura Albers and Carole Pecoraro.

Republican Charles I. Ecker, who took a $30,000 gamble when he lent his campaign money for a last-minute advertising blitz, saw it pay off yesterday when a tally of absentee ballots gave him a victory over incumbent Howard County Executive Elizabeth Bobo.Mr. Ecker, who prevailed by 450 votes, said he made the loan at 8 percent interest because he needed to buy full-page newspaper ads and circulars and had faith in his chances of winning a race in which he was a decided underdog."It shows you how confident I was," said Mr. Ecker, who also received a late contribution of $6,000 from a home builders political action committee.

With a 252-vote lead after Tuesday's Democratic primary and about 200 absentee ballots still to be counted, Del. John A. Giannetti Jr. appeared triumphant yesterday in his bid to unseat veteran Sen. Arthur Dorman for the District 21 state Senate seat. "I'm feeling pretty high," Giannetti said yesterday afternoon. He said he would wait until the absentee ballots are counted today to claim victory, but he was confident he would prevail. The winner of the primary wins the election; no Republican filed to run. Dorman, however, said he hopes to do well on the absentee ballots - and leaves open the possibility of requesting a recount, if needed, after votes are certified by the state this month.

Anti-war candidate Tracy Miller appeared to have lost in her race for a seat in Maryland's House of Delegates, as election officials tabulated absentee ballots yesterday in Baltimore County. Miller was overtaken by Republican Del. William J. Frank for the third House seat in a district that includes Towson, Timonium and Lutherville. Miller, who had been clinging to a seven-vote lead after election night, said yesterday she wasn't holding out hope that the few remaining ballots to be counted would be enough for her to win. "I'm disappointed," she said.

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.

Maryland's closest race for governor in 75 years is likely to be decided today as election officials across the state huddle to count absentee ballots.Democrat Parris N. Glendening finished Tuesday with an unofficial 6,187-vote lead out of about 1.36 million total votes cast. Mrs. Sauerbrey was chipping away at that lead last night as a few counties began counting their absentee vote.But Mr. Glendening said yesterday that he remained confident of victory."I know it was tight," he told reporters in Annapolis.

Candidates in two close Howard County Council primaries are anxiously awaiting a count of absentee ballots today that could determine their political fates, while county Republicans hope their popular gubernatorial candidate has coattails. Kenneth S. Ulman held a 40-vote lead over Mary Kay Sigaty in the unofficial election night tally for the Democratic contest in west Columbia, but several hundred absentee ballots remain to be counted. Ulman postponed a two-day rest at Bethany Beach, Del., to join Sigaty to watch today's count, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. "We did our best to send absentee applications to people who wouldn't be in town.