In the city, voters overwhelmingly chose to oust two-term Republican Charlie Smithgall from City Hall. They elected Democrat Rick Gray in his place.

They also gave the mayor-to-be an all-Democrat city council to work with for at least the next two years and cemented the party’s majority on the board for Gray’s entire first term.

Outside the city, voters elected Democrats to serve as school directors in Manheim Township, supervisors in West Hempfield, Drumore, Lancaster and Clay townships, and councilmen in Adamstown and Millersville. They even selected a Democrat for mayor in Mountville.

“It was a historic day and a great night to be a Democrat in Lancaster County,” said the party’s chairman, Bruce Beardsley. “In one night we quadrupled the number of elected Democratic officeholders here. We went in with nine, and now we have 39.”

Meanwhile, the most significant Republican victory in the county — in the race for Common Pleas judge — was by a relatively slim margin considering the county’s massive GOP voter registration.

Republican Dennis Reinaker’s win over Democrat Samuel M. Mecum was by less than 8 percentage points, or only 4,962 votes out of 67,860 cast. Countywide, Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly 100,000 voters, or 60 percent to 26 percent.

G. Terry Madonna, the director of Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Politics and Public Affairs, said Tuesday’s election clearly shows that the county’s political landscape is in transition.

“I think the total hegemony that Republicans have over the county may be in question,” he said. “The take-for-granted Republican voters are much more volatile.”

The change is most evident in the city’s immediate suburbs — Manheim, East Hempfield and Lancaster townships — where voters sided with Democrat Mecum in the local judicial race.

“They’re the more affluent folks who are socially more moderate, college-educated and aren’t always lock-step with the Republican Party,” Madonna said. “If I were a Republican, I would be very concerned about greater volatility among Lancaster County’s Republican voters.”

David M. Dumeyer, the county Republican chairman, said Democrats “had a higher level of energy. They felt energized.”

“It may be a bit of a wake-up call to our party to take note of some of the organizational strategies they worked on,” Dumeyer said. “There may be some lessons for us here.”

Countywide only one in four voters — or 72,922 of the 293,449 who registered — went to the polls.

Despite the hotly contested mayoral race in Lancaster, turnout was only slightly higher in the city, at 26 percent, said Mary Stehman, the top elections official here. In the city, 9,091 of the 35,400 registered voters went to the polls.

In the race to be Lancaster’s mayor, Gray won 58 percent of the vote to Smithgall’s 42 percent.

The unofficial results are:

Rick Gray 5,033

Charlie Smithgall 3,710

Reinaker, meantime, will fill a seat on the county bench vacated by Judge Lawrence Stengel, who accepted an appointment by President Bush last year to serve as a federal court judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The unofficial results are:

Dennis Reinaker 36,411

Samuel M. Mecum 31,449

Although Reinaker once lived in Manheim Township and served as a commissioner and zoning board member there, he lost the suburb to Mecum by 10 percentage points, or 847 votes out of 7,931 cast there.

The same held true in two other suburbs. The Democrat won East Hempfield Township by about 6 percent, or 253 votes of 4,423 cast in the judicial race. Mecum also beat Reinaker by a two-to-one margin in Lancaster Township.

Reinaker, meanwhile, drew his strongest support from the rural and traditionally more conservative parts of the county. For example, the Republican won by roughly two-to-one margins in Colerain Township in the county’s southern end, West Donegal Township in the northwest, and East and West Cocalico township in the northeast.

In addition to electing Reinaker to the bench, voters across the county chose to retain Common Pleas judges Louis Farina and Michael Georgelis for another 10 years.

The unofficial results on whether to retain Farina are:

Yes 28,460

No 14,536

The unofficial results on whether to retain Georgelis are:

Yes 29,769

No 13,801

Lancaster County voters overwhelmingly helped to deny state Supreme Court Justice Russell M. Nigro another 10-year term in what citizen activists portrayed as more evidence of citizens’ disenchantment with state government.

Nigro became the first statewide judge to be turned out of office in a yes-or-no retention election in the 36 years such elections have been held.

Returns from 98 percent of the state’s precincts showed him attracting only 49 percent of the vote — 681,543 “yes” votes to 712,290 “no” votes.

In Lancaster County, the unofficial results on whether to retain Nigro are:

Yes 13,891

No 29,206

Fellow Justice Sandra Schultz Newman won a second term with 54 percent — a close margin for a retention election, the partial returns showed.

In Lancaster County, the unofficial results on whether to retain Newman are:

Yes 16,125

No 27,779

In the only race for magisterial district judge in the county, the Republican incumbent easily beat back a Democratic challenger in the Lititz area.

The unofficial results are:

Daniel B. Garrett 3,458

David B. Morrison 1,899

In Conoy Township, voters chose to elect two new supervisors next year after voting overwhelmingly Tuesday to expand the board from three to five members.

Candidates for the two new supervisor positions will be chosen during the May 2006 primary for election next November. They will take office in January 2007.

The unofficial results on whether to expand the board by two members are:

Yes 398

No 100

In Wrightsville, the small Susquehanna River town in York County, voters elected a convicted felon as mayor.

Republican Stephen D. Rambler won in a landslide against Democratic challenger Dawn Lindeman despite a well-publicized criminal background.

In 1996, Rambler, formerly of Mountville, pleaded guilty in a Harrisburg federal court to a felony count of extortion.

Charged by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, he was sentenced to two years’ probation and was fined $550. He solicited sexually explicit photos in an ad he placed in a swingers magazine and then attempted to extort $50 from those who responded, by threatening to publicly expose their letters and photos.

The unofficial results are:

Stephen D. Rambler 398

Dawn Lindeman 187

Several countywide candidates were unopposed on Tuesday. Dennis Stuckey, a Republican, was re-elected as county controller; Steve McDonald was re-elected as the county’s recorder of deeds; and Judith J. Saylor, a Democrat, and Diane M. Collier, a Republican, won jury commissioner terms.

In addition to electing Reinaker to the bench, voters across the county chose to retain Common Pleas judges Louis Farina and Michael Georgelis for another 10 years.

The unofficial results on whether to retain Farina are:

Yes 28,460

No 14,536

The unofficial results on whether to retain Georgelis are:

Yes 29,769

No 13,801

Lancaster County voters overwhelmingly helped to deny state Supreme Court Justice Russell M. Nigro another 10-year term in what citizen activists portrayed as more evidence of citizens’ disenchantment with state government.

Nigro became the first statewide judge to be turned out of office in a yes-or-no retention election in the 36 years such elections have been held.

Returns from 98 percent of the state’s precincts showed him attracting only 49 percent of the vote — 681,543 “yes” votes to 712,290 “no” votes.

In Lancaster County, the unofficial results on whether to retain Nigro are:

Yes 13,891

No 29,206

Fellow Justice Sandra Schultz Newman won a second term with 54 percent — a close margin for a retention election, the partial returns showed.

In Lancaster County, the unofficial results on whether to retain Newman are:

Yes 16,125

No 27,779

In the only race for magisterial district judge in the county, the Republican incumbent easily beat back a Democratic challenger in the Lititz area.

The unofficial results are:

Daniel B. Garrett 3,458

David B. Morrison 1,899

In Conoy Township, voters chose to elect two new supervisors next year after voting overwhelmingly Tuesday to expand the board from three to five members.

Candidates for the two new supervisor positions will be chosen during the May 2006 primary for election next November. They will take office in January 2007.

The unofficial results on whether to expand the board by two members are:

Yes 398

No 100

In Wrightsville, the small Susquehanna River town in York County, voters elected a convicted felon as mayor.

Republican Stephen D. Rambler won in a landslide against Democratic challenger Dawn Lindeman despite a well-publicized criminal background.

In 1996, Rambler, formerly of Mountville, pleaded guilty in a Harrisburg federal court to a felony count of extortion.

Charged by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, he was sentenced to two years’ probation and was fined $550. He solicited sexually explicit photos in an ad he placed in a swingers magazine and then attempted to extort $50 from those who responded, by threatening to publicly expose their letters and photos.

The unofficial results are:

Stephen D. Rambler 398

Dawn Lindeman 187

Several countywide candidates were unopposed on Tuesday. Dennis Stuckey, a Republican, was re-elected as county controller; Steve McDonald was re-elected as the county’s recorder of deeds; and Judith J. Saylor, a Democrat, and Diane M. Collier, a Republican, won jury commissioner terms.