Jubilation was the mood at the Parsippany Elks Club as the township's Democratic Party celebrated the apparent rupture of exclusive Republican rule of the Town Council.

Jonathan Nelson scored an unofficial victory over GOP candidate Judy Tiedemann in Tuesday's general election.

The raw tally, still uncertified by the Morris County Clerk and awaiting Friday's vote totals from Superstorm Sandy-displaced voters, put Nelson on top, 8,963-8,569.

A Democrat has not been elected to the Parsippany Council in nearly 30 years.

The party also celebrated the apparent repeat win in Parsippany of President Barack Obama over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 11,025-9,683.

In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez defeated Republican challenger Joe Kyrillos.

Longtime 11th District GOP U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen scored a solid win in the township over Democratic chalenger John Arvanites.

District 26 Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce, a Republican, won the right to finish out her late husband's term in the State House. In a close contest with Democratic challenger Joseph Raich, DeCroce bested her opponent by just over 1,000 votes.

In the county freeholder race, as many expected, the GOP ticket of former Parsippany Councilman John Cesaro, John Krickus and David Scapicchio were the victors against Democratic challengers Toshiba Foster, Wasim Khan and Joy Singh.

In the Parsippany Board of Education race, the top unofficial vote-getter was police Capt. James Carifi, followed by current board President Frank Calabria and former BOE member Joanne Mancuso, who did not campaign. Calabria ticketmate Alison Cogan, Carifi running mate Anthony DeIntinis and school board Vice President Frank Neglia were the remaining candidates.

Absentee votes were included in the unofficial counts, however, in a Tuesday afternoon announcement, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno issued a directive instructing county clerks to accept applications for mail-in ballots from storm-displaced residents by fax or e-mail through 5 p.m. Tuesday. Clerks are to process those applications throughout the week, and ballots must be returned by 8 p.m. Friday.

The counting of these "displaced votes" will affect vote totals and perhaps the outcome of some of the races.