Local Democratic Group Demands Recount on PR

The Cambridge Young Democrats will demand a complete recount of the ballots cast in Tuesday's election which endorsed the controversial system of Proportional Representation by 455 votes.

An intensive campaign by the Young Democrats brought PR closer to defeat than at any time in the past 20 years. Lawrence W. Brennan, president of the group, said yesterday, "We don't plan to fold up our tents and go away now."

Brennan declared last night that there is "a possibility of some degree of error" in the ballot counting. He claimed that the hundreds of people "yelling, screaming, and milling around the large vote tabulation center" may have caused an inaccurate result.

"There were 33,000 votes cast," Brennan said, "and even a one per cent error could change the election's outcome." Thomas J. Hartnett, the Cambridge election commissioner, told the CRIMSON yesterday that he "does not expect any difference if the votes are recounted."

Hartnett stressed that no recount will be held until the final election results have been tabulated, "which will definitely not be before next Tuesday." The Young Democrats have not yet presented a recount petition, signed by ten voters from each ward, to the Commission.

According to Massachusetts law, the question of proportional representation cannot be placed on the ballot again for four years. Several opponents of PR have hinted that if they lose this election they will attempt to get the law changed at the next session of the State Legislature.

Yesterday Brennan said that the vote "was not the will of the people but a satchel delivered by the transient liberals who make Cambridge a laboratory for their crackpot theories." He attributed the PR victory to the great strength of the system's chief advocate, the Cambridge Civic Association, in a few isolated city wards.