David Oh closer to council victory?

David Oh seemed poised to clinch victory after a preliminary count of about 2,000 absentee ballots Monday in the race for the second at-large seat on Philadephia's City Council.

Oh's lead grew by three votes to 168 after a Board of Elections official and lawyers for both sides tallied results from about 2,000 absentee ballots.

Oh's rival for the seat, Al Taubenberger, said he wants every vote counted. Monday's count is unofficial, and Board of Elections employees still must count 757 provisional ballots, which are generally used for voters whose names do not appear in log books at their polling places.

Tuesday is the deadline for military ballots, but since the preliminary absentee count only furthered Oh's lead, it seems improbable that any other category of votes turn the tide toward Taubenberger.

Even so, Oh, a lawyer who is Korean and would become the first Asian-American on City Council, said it was too early to declare victory.

"I'm still optimistic, and we'll continue the process," he said.

Taubenberger, who heads the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, said he was not ready to concede.

"This is one race again that shows that every vote does count," Taubenberger said.

Four years ago, Oh lost the race for Councilman at-large by 122 votes to Jack Kelly. The count in that race took two weeks.

As the top vote-getter in this year's May primary, Oh seemed like a shoo-in, but a series of negative news stories saying he embellished his military record and describing a gun charge against him that was dismissed allowed Taubenberger to catch up.

State Rep. Dennis O'Brien won the other Republican at-large seat in last week's election.