The election may draw only a few thousand voters, and the central issue involves a policy of just 162 words. But a school board election on Tuesday in this rural community is being closely watched across the nation because of its implications for the contentious debate over evolution. At stake are seven seats on the Dover School Board currently held by supporters of a policy approved last fall requiring high school biology students to be made aware of the "intelligent design" theory, an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution. The policy, considered the first of its type in the nation, does not authorize the teaching of intelligent design. But in its direct challenge to evolution - it says that Darwin's theory has "gaps" for which "there is no evidence" - it has sparked a federal lawsuit and Dover's liveliest school board election in memory. | 
