By the closing of the polls Tuesday night, voters in one South Jersey municipality said they'd drink to that while residents of two other towns vigorously decided to pass.

In the end, it all went to show what a hot-button issue going wet or staying dry remains in the Garden State.

Voters in Stratford in Camden County cast their ballots in favor of allowing liquor licenses by 1,551-495 - a ratio of more than 3-1. That was not the result of electoral whim, according to Gerald Zekas, chairman of Stratford's economic development committee.

"We had a major education campaign here," Zekas said. "We pulled out all the stops."

Zekas said borough leaders felt alcohol-consumption licenses would be essential to attracting better restaurants to Stratford and ushering needed economic redevelopment.

"We're talking to developers, and they're all telling us, 'You need liquor licenses,' " Zekas said.

To get that message across, two public forums were held, information was sent out via the Internet and flyers, and Mayor Thomas G. Angelucci did a telephone blitz, Zekas said. The borough will be eligible for two consumption licenses for restaurants and one distribution license for a package store.

In the past, Stratford defeated at least two similar ballot questions, and lots of residents would probably have preferred to maintain Stratford's dry status, Zekas said.

"Unfortunately, times change," he noted, "and we've got to change with them."

Moorestown in Burlington County and Pitman in Gloucester County, meanwhile, chose to not part company with the state's 36 other dry towns. In those municipalities, the voting leaned more toward emotions than economics.

In Pitman yesterday, some folks were saying that voters' perceptions - or misconceptions - of candidates' stands on the liquor-license issue led to the defeat of incumbent Mayor Alice Polocz and two incumbent council members, costing the Democrats their majority.

"It wasn't a multi-issue race. It was all about the alcohol," said Borough Clerk Dawn Marie Human.

Human said the Republican candidates came out strongly against liquor licenses while the incumbent Democrats said they just wanted to get residents' input through a nonbinding public vote, rather than decide the issue on their own. The Democrats in office "were not necessarily in favor of alcohol licenses," she said, but that message "was ineffectually delivered."

"We saw it [the vote] as a survey, and they ran away with it and made it a big political thing," said Polocz, who was defeated by Republican Councilman Michael Batten.

The Broadway Theatre, for one, had expressed interest in allowing liquor sales.

But the Republican candidates "implied that you'd be opening doors to alcoholics and drunks, and that your children might have to walk past drunks on the way to school," said Polocz, adding that she and her running mates intended to abide by the public's wishes.

Batten agreed the alcohol question was a factor in the election, although he disagreed it was used unfairly.

"No Republican brought [the alcohol licenses] up to the council. I would never have brought it to the forefront," said Batten, who also said he voted to allow it on the ballot.

It was defeated 1,787-1,167 or 60 percent against and nearly 40 percent for licenses.

In Moorestown, where the liquor licenses were defeated 4,202-2,559, things also got heated.

"It was an overwhelming victory for tradition and respect for the character of our town," said Councilman Daniel Roccato, a leader in the the opposition to liquor licenses. "It was a real clear signal that the vast majority of Moorestown does not want radical change."

Supporters of the licenses said they could help strengthen the Route 38 business corridor by the Moorestown Mall, generate revenue and add to the commercial tax base. It was theorized that a consumption license in affluent Moorestown could fetch around $1 million.

Councilman Jonathan Eron opposed the licenses, but said he was "discouraged" by the tenor of the debate on both sides. "It got very testy," he said.

Mayor Kevin Aberant, who supported the licenses as a way to bolster the township's declining commercial tax base and to fund needed capital improvements, said he's glad the will of the people is finally known. Now, he said, it's time for the license opponents to help come up with a Plan B.

"I hope they redirect their energies into dealing with the problems we're facing," Aberant said.