Voters Confused About Brown's Name

NEW YORK--Edmund G. Brown Jr. is Jerry Brown, campaign volunteers told confused voters over the phone and at poll sites here yesterday.

The former California governor is listed as Edmund G. Brown Jr.--not Jerry--on the ballot here, and campaign officials scrambled yesterday to help voters confused by the switch.

In addition, the Brown campaign said it received several complaints yesterday about poll workers who lied to voters about Brown's status on the ballot.

Some of the candidate's aides suggested the problem may have had a significant effect on the primary results.

Another campaign official said several callers reported that fake ballots omitting Brown's name had been mailed to them.

"We have had incidents of absolute fraud," said Jacob Frumpkin, the Brown campaign's director of volunteers in New York.

Frumpkin said at least one Democratic party leader, wearing a button supporting Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, refused to answer a voter who had asked if Jerry was the same as Edmund. Frumpkin declined to name the party leader, saying that campaign officials would handle the matter.

Since the caller who reported the incident named the specific polling site, the campaign's lawyers will likely take legal action, Frumpkin said.

Other officials said campaign workers fielded hundreds of phone calls from voters who were wondering who "Edmund G." was..

"One woman said that she hoped she voted for the right person today," said Al Brown, a Brown volunteer who distributed pamphlets in Queens.

Jean Conway, a 54-year-old Brown volunteer from Wilmington, Del., campaigned in Washington Square Park and attempted to help confused voters. She said workers were sent throughout the city to distribute special flyers designed to clear up the mess.

"Every phone call I mention that it's Edmund G. Brown on the ballot,'" said 17-year-old volunteer Nathan P. Hendler.

Hendler said that he received five calls from confused voters yesterday and that other volunteers received dozens more.

Some campaign officials, perhaps smelling defeat, said they expected Brown to lose several percentage points because of the voter confusion.

"It's been a major topic of conversation today," said William J. Gelford, a New York lawyer who just joined the campaign last week. He said the name confusion yesterday was simply "unbelievable."