PORTSMOUTH — With 470 absentee votes still to be counted, Democrats appeared to retain control of both the Town Council and the School Committee last night, but just barely.

 The top vote-getters were fiscal conservatives running across party lines who question the need for additional funds for the schools and who generally oppose the direction the School Committee has been heading – to court to secure more money.

 School financing, as well as the statewide referendum on a casino, galvanized a large voter turnout, with 61.6 percent of the 12,641 eligible voters going to the polls yesterday.

 Democratic  Councilman Dennis M. Canario, 46, a retired police detective, led the field in the competition for  seven seats on the Town Council.

 Canario, who called for a program audit of the schools, had a total of 4,076 votes, according to unofficial results of the state Board of Elections.

 Republican Hubert “Huck” Little, 72, a veteran of the General Assembly and the Town Council, came out of retirement and placed second, with 3,888 votes. He says a lawsuit will deepen divisions in town over school funding.

 In third place, surprising some poll-watchers, was Karen J. Gleason, a Democratic School Committee member who failed to get the party’s endorsement and ran as an  independent for Town Council.

 Others leading in the voting for council are Democrat incumbents James A. Seveney, with 3,541 votes, William E. West, with 3,510, and Leonard Barry Katzman, with 3,450.

 In seventh place was another Democrat and political newcomer, Mark J. Katzman (Leonard’s brother), who was running even with Republican incumbent Peter J. McIntyre, in eighth place with 3,275 votes.

 Four seats are at stake on the School Committee, where a Republican and political newcomer, Michael Buddemeyer, took the most votes, 3,632.

 In second place was E. Richard Carpender, a Democratic incumbent and the head of the School Committee’s finance subcommittee, who has overseen a budget review which has left the School Committee on the brink of filing a lawsuit.

 Voters cut school spending by $1.1 million at a Financial Town Meeting in August, and outside consultants recently  told the School Committee that it is $770,000 short of meeting its legal and contractual obligations during the current fiscal year.

 Republican Jamie R.B. Heaney, 25, a former councilman who says he does not believe the schools lack sufficient funds, received 3,412 votes, placing third among nine candidates for School Committee.

 Fourth in the race is Marjorie Levesque, a Democratic incumbent on the SchoolCommittee, with 3,325 votes. She opposed the $1.1-million cut made by voters in August.

 Her closest competitor, first-time Republican candidate Melinda A. Dupont, 59, a hairdresser, is more than 100 votes behind. Dupont favored the $1.1-million cut.

 Of the seven seats on the School Committee, three are held by incumbents in the middle of their terms. They include two Democrats, Sylvia Wedge and Terri Cortvriend, and one Republican, Douglas Wilkie.

 Buddemeyer, 40, a hotel manager, said the division in town can only be mended by having both parties represented on the School Committee and the Town Council.

 The people voted for a cross-section of candidates because they “want to put it [the town] back together again,’’ he said.

 Gleason said she believes the voters have “confidence in me to address our fiscal crisis.’’ Like Canario,  she says she wants an audit of the schools to ensure that they are making the most efficient use of their funding.

 Leonard Katzman pointed out that all four incumbent Democrats on the council who ran for reelection have comfortable margins.

 The vote reaffirmed the direction of the council, he said, which has included “support of the schools blended with fiscal conservatism.’’

gmacris@projo.com / (401) 277-7455