The school board member didn't bat an eye. "I'll call my campaign treasurer," she promised, "and tell him to pay you."

There's no telling how many votes are bought and sold in Asbury Park, but - in a city where voter turnout is abysmal - any number is too many. (To put it in perspective, in a town with over 7,800 registered voters, you can win a Board of Education seat with less than 300 votes. In return, you'd manage a $61 million budget and have considerable say over school hirings, firings, contracts, and policy.)

Over the years, I've heard countless stories of vote buying, ranging from a friend who was offered cash as he swept his sidewalk, to reports of campaign workers who "hire" people off the streets on election day, drive them to the polls, and then abandon them to walk home after they've voted.

One friend overheard a campaign worker giving potential voters a choice: a $25 check or $20 in cash. (Most people wisely took the cash.)

Why can't something be done? As my friend in the elevator said, "How could I prove it? The board member and the voter would both call me a liar."

Absentee ballots are another concern, and Monmouth County Board of Elections officials said that, just a few years ago, Asbury Park absentee ballots would sometimes be carried in by the boxful. (It's recently dropped to the "bundleful," I'm told, although one unsuccessful city council candidate collected over a third of his votes in absentee ballots last year.)

Legally, absentee ballots should be used only by people who are out of state on election day, are hampered by disabilities, or can't get to the polls because of religious holidays, residency at school, or long working hours.

If you are unable to vote in this spring's Board of Education election, visit the city clerk's office in city hall (732-775-2100) and request an absentee ballot application. You must mail your completed application to the county Board of Elections at least seven days before the election, or by April 9 if this year's election occurs on April 16.

The county will then send you an election ballot which must be completed and returned - in person or by mail - before the polls close on election day. (There is some chance that the state will postpone this year's election. Check the newspapers for a possible new date.)

One word of caution: When you apply for an absentee ballot, your name goes on a list that is publicly available. A friend of mine returned home last spring to find a strange woman in her home, attempting to collect an absentee ballot from my friend's bedridden mother.

When confronted, the woman assured my friend that she was an "authorized" campaign worker, sent to pick up the ballot. As it turned out, of course, she was working for a candidate that my friend and her mother didn't support, and was apparently visiting the homes of people on the absentee ballot list, trying to collect their votes.

Over the years, I've heard several stories about people in rooming homes and halfway houses who were intimidated into signing absentee ballots by their landlords, and who were too afraid to testify against them. I've also heard about elderly or handicapped people who didn't realize that they were signing an absentee ballot, and who unexpectedly found themselves unable to vote on election day.

If anyone approaches you with election-related material, be sure you know what you're signing. If you are unsure or intimidated, ask them to return when a friend or family member is present.

Asbury Park has been a hotbed of recall elections for the past six years (and, yes, I hear that a recall effort is already being planned against me and other city council members), but people who request a recall election must first get at least 25% of all registered voters to sign a petition.

During the last (unsuccessful) recall campaign, a resident told me that several of her friends had unwittingly signed a recall petition because they were told that it was actually a petition in support of children's recreation or beachfront redevelopment. She reported the incidents to the authorities, but declined to testify because she and her friends are senior citizens living alone.

And then, of course, there was my celebrated election experience. Last election day, I was told that I had lost the city council race by a wide margin. Then, three weeks later, another candidate challenged the results, and the county Board of Elections discovered that I had actually won. My voting machine totals had been severely under-reported in two districts.

How did it happen? Campaign workers told me that, in one district, the public was not permitted to see the final tallies on the voting machines - a clear violation of election law, since any member of the public may inspect the machines on election night once the votes are officially recorded.

In the other district, a volunteer for another candidate heard poll workers call out the correct total for me. The volunteer wrote down the correct number, but the official election worker recorded an incorrect total on the tally sheet that went to city hall.

Although the volunteer later noticed the difference in the two counts, he incorrectly assumed that the "official" version was correct.

The lesson? If you are a candidate, make sure that you or a campaign worker look at the machine totals in every voting district on election night. Insist on it. It is your right.

The sad part? A popular Board of Education member who was defeated in her re-election bid told me that her campaign workers were also denied the right to inspect the machines on her election night. Were mistakes made on her totals, too? We'll never know, because the machines were later re-set for another election.

So there you have it, a quick primer on undermining Asbury Park elections. The election manipulators know these techniques, and now you do, too.

How can you stop them? There are only two real answers:

1. Register. Pick up a voter registration form at the city clerk's office in city hall (732-775-2100). Give registration forms to all your friends. Do it today to ensure that you can vote in this spring's all-important Board of Education election.

2. Vote. Asbury Park's elections are determined by a painfully small number of voters, and - if someone's not playing fair - then your vote really does count. Go to the polls, and take a friend or neighbor. In fact, take several of them.

You can make a difference.