The voters have spoken. And, as they have for several years, they did so early in Tuesday's electoral game, often decisively.

In fact, if there is one rule of thumb in local politics today, it is this: Have all your ducks in a row weeks in advance of the election, because absentee ballots are going to be the key to success.

That's not always true. But for the most part that tenet holds. Three cases this week make the point.

In the race for the last available seat on the Burlingame City Council, two incumbents fought it out. Cathy Baylock was the apparent winner over 20-year council veteran Rosalie O'Mahony by just 77 votes. That margin was secured by vote-by-mail ballots. At the polls, the voting was dead even.

Mike Loy, a challenger for a seat on the San Mateo Union High School District board of trustees, got 146 more votes at the polls than incumbent Bob Griffin. But Griffin had accumulated a lead of 1,590 votes via the absentee route. Loy, despite an aggressive campaign, had no chance after that.

The same thing occurred in Belmont's City Council election. There, challenger Gin Nikoloff and incumbent Coralin Feierbach dueled for the last of three seats. The former received 22 more votes at the polls but lost the mail-in battle by 344. Game, set, match for Feierbach.

In San Mateo County as a whole, roughly 63 percent of the 60,670 votes cast were by mail. That's not a new phenomenon.

So

This circumstance is making campaigns longer. And it takes a great deal of the suspense out of election night. Let's face it, once the county Elections Office pops the vote-by-mail figures on computer screens just after 8 p.m., it's obvious who most of the eventual winners are going to be, particularly when turnout is low.

So champagne toasts can be raised early at those victory parties.

Eye on future

On that same subject, a modest crowd convened at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall in San Mateo on Tuesday evening.

A few candidates were there. So were well-wishers, union officials and others interested in the election results. Among them were two individuals, Joe Galligan and Susan Manheimer, with an eye on the future.

Galligan, a former Burlingame mayor, already has announced his bid for the county treasurer's post next year.

And it's no secret that Manheimer, San Mateo's police chief, has been considering her options regarding the county sheriff's position. She was a finalist in the search for a San Francisco police chief but didn't get the job.

The current sheriff, Greg Munks, might be vulnerable next year at election time due to his well-publicized involvement in a 2007 police raid on a Las Vegas brothel. Munks, as you may recall, said he was on the property in question when the bust was made because he thought it was a massage venue. The sheriff was not arrested.

Still, there is lingering unhappiness about his behavior in some quarters. Manheimer has not indicated publicly whether she will seek Munks' office — yet.

You can get in touch with John Horgan by e-mail at jhorg@hotmail.com and by regular snail mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.