PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Thursday, November 4, 1993 Page: A20 Edition: FINAL Section: LOCAL Graphics: PHOTO Memo: ELECTION '93 2D DISTRICT FIGHT CONTINUES IN COURT THE DEMOCRAT CLAIMED VICTORY, THE REPUBLICAN SAID FRAUD. AT STAKE: CONTROL OF THE PENNSYLVANIA SENATE. By Vanessa Williams, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Inquirer staff writer Daniel Rubin contributed to this article. A day after the polls closed in the hard-fought contest in Philadelphia's Second State Senate District, both candidates continued to claim victory, while the city's unofficial election returns showed the race to be a virtual dead heat. Republican Bruce Marks was back in court yesterday pressing his claim of ''massive fraud" in absentee balloting and asking a Common Pleas Court judge to toss out about 1,200 votes mailed to the Board of Elections. The Democrat, William Stinson, who did not appear in court, said in a telephone interview from his home, "I'm very happy to win and ready to go to work." As of 11:33 a.m. yesterday, the city's "unofficial and incomplete" election returns had Marks ahead of Stinson by 28 votes. About 39,000 votes had been cast, less than one-third the number of registered voters in the district. A spokesman for the city's election board said that three of 251 divisions remained uncounted. City officials said the official count of the votes would begin Friday. But Stinson said his campaign's unofficial count of all divisions showed him winning. "I'm up by 243," he said. Despite sounding weary, he managed to make a joke of the photo-finish race. Noting that he had lost a 1991 bid for City Council by 17 votes, Stinson said, "243 is a mandate." "I won this election on Election Day," said Marks, himself experienced in tight votes. He lost a 1990 bid for the seat by 851 votes, and went through a recount then. "We believe that there were about 1,200 absentee ballots improperly cast," he said. "If you take those out, I win by 1,000 votes." The special election in the district, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2-1, was called to replace Democratic Sen. Francis J. Lynch, who died in May. The standoff over Tuesday's race also prolongs the suspense over which party will control the upper chamber of the General Assembly. A win by Stinson, 49, would force a tie between Democrats and Republicans and permit Democrats to maintain control because the lieutenant governor, also a Democrat, can vote to break ties on certain procedural matters. Stinson, who owns a jewelry store in Center City and a beauty parlor in Juniata Park, formerly worked in Mayor Rendell's administration. Marks, who practices law in Center City, was an aide to Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. Senate Republicans, who spent nearly $500,000 on television and in the streets of the district, have vowed an all-out war in court to win the seat. Marks, 36, repeated his charge that Stinson "wants to steal this election from me" and complained that a judge's Election Day rejection of his request to impound all of the approximately 1,900 absentee ballots severely hampered his ability to prove fraud. Marks said he also was concerned that some ballots that were challenged may already have been opened. Common Pleas Court Judge Eugene E.J. Maier ruled early Tuesday that Marks would have to go to each polling place and file challenges to absentee ballots that he suspected were fraudulently cast. At a hearing yesterday afternoon in Center City, Marks' attorney, Paul R. Rosen, told Maier that the candidate was able to file between 465 and 505 challenges on Tuesday. He asked the judge to set aside all unopened ballots to determine if they matched those challenged by Marks. Maier, a Democrat who is a former city commissioner and ward chairman, yesterday agreed to set aside the unopened ballots. A hearing was scheduled for today to review the status of those ballots. The judge said the two sides would discuss the ballots that had already been opened in subsequent hearings. He also asked the Marks campaign to submit a written complaint over charges of possible tampering with voting machines in some divisions. The two sides were then dispatched to the board of elections office at Delaware Avenue and Spring Garden Street to begin separating the unopened absentee ballots. Gregory Harvey, the attorney for Stinson's campaign, dismissed Marks' challenge and said that when the absentee ballots were counted, Stinson's lead would grow. "We can assume that they did not challenge ballots marked for Bruce Marks," Harvey said, predicting that Stinson will get to keep some of the challenged absentee ballots. "It's a close election, and therefore it's very important that there be both an appearance and reality of a careful and wholly honest count," Harvey said. Officials of the Marks campaign have complained that the number of absentee ballots cast was suspiciously high and that there was evidence that some ballots were received from addresses of vacant houses. They also complained that multiple ballots appeared to have been filled out in the same handwriting. Marks said that on Election Day, as he and his campaign workers tried to file challenges at polling places, they were intimidated and, in some cases, physically restrained. He said that he was shoved off the door step of one polling place, in a private home on North Ninth Street in the 43d Ward, when he tried to go in and file a challenge with an election judge. He said he called for a police officer, who, upon arriving, said he had no authority to take him inside the polling place. Marks said his wife was similarly harassed in the 53d Ward. The challenges had to be filed promptly after the polls closed at 8 p.m., and complainants had to post a $10 bond for each complaint, Marks said. Marks said that it was "virtually impossible" for him to cover all of the polling places in the district on election night. D. Donald Jamieson, chairman of the City Republican Committee, also attended the court hearing and said the GOP was "ecstatic" over Marks' effort against Stinson, who lost the 33d Ward, where he is Democratic leader. "He has performed in the mode of an Arlen Specter and as a candidate, Arlen Specter is the best around. He's young, intelligent and he's got boundless energy," Jamieson said. "It would be a crying shame if he was robbed of this victory." STATE SENATE (99% of the vote) 2D DISTRICT Bruce S. Marks (R) . . . 19,568 William Stinson (D) . . . 19,540 Caption: PHOTO (1) 1. Election officials Dennis Kelly (left) and Robert Lee count absentee ballots. Bruce Marks says about 1,200 were improperly cast. (The Philadelphia Inquirer / JOHN COSTELLO) Copyright 1993 PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS INC. May not be reprinted without permission.