On the national scale this Tuesday, Collingswood will cast its votes for a U.S. president, a U.S. senator and a U.S. representative, while also voting on two statewide referendum issues and three school board candidates.

The 11-member Collingswood Board of Education (BOE) is composed of nine Collingswood residents and one each from its sending districts of Oaklyn and Woodlynne.

A Meet the Candidates forum that would have introduced borough residents to the hopefuls was scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 30, but cancelled due to extreme weather.

In forwarding around an email announcing the cancellation to those who were scheduled to attend, its organizer, Rob Lewandowski, invited the candidates to submit personal statements to Patch and other media for the benefit of voters making their choices. In his note, Lewandowski summed up the situation neatly:

"I got involved in organizing Meet the Candidates when it became apparent that without such a forum, voters would know little to nothing about candidates, would have little information to make an informed choice," he wrote.

"Randomness is no way to elect public officials."

At Patch, we agree with these sentiments. Tuesday, voters will select from among five borough residents to fill three three-year terms. Three of the candidates currently serve on the Board. Click on their names below to read more about each:

• Susan Depper Gittler
• Louis Evangelista (current BOE member)
• James Hatzell (sitting BOE President)
• Kathleen McCarthy (current BOE member)
• Terry Moody