Redistricting Changes Cause Mass Confusion

Many confused voters wandered the streets of Cambridge looking for their polling places yesterday, unaware of the changes caused by redistricting.

Council candidate John R. Pitkin had warned of the impending problems before the election, but Election Commission officials had dismissed the concerns as unwarranted.

But Pitkin, other candidates and voters said yesterday that the changes in polling places should have been better publicized. "The Election Commission should have gotten this information out a lot sooner and explained it better," Pitkin said last night.

Joseph G. Grassi, a school board candidate who was campaigning outside of East End House, said redistricting hurt voter turnout.

"They notified people way too late," he said. "It's inexcusable. Notification shouldn't be three days before the election when people are bombarded with campaign literature."

Other candidates agreed. School Board Candidate Christine M. Arruda, who was campaigning outside the Harrington School in East Cambridge, said, "people were not notified adequately. I think it has hurt voter turnout."

She added that her sister was not allowed to vote because of confusion over the redistricting.

Councillor Timothy J. Toomey, who campaigned for reelection inside the Harrington School, said there was "a lot of confusion about where people were supposed to go."

Tony D. Pini, a coordinator for Michael A. Sullivan's city council campaign, said he and his co-workers encountered about 100 people trying to vote in the wrong place.

The Sullivan campaign stationed workers at polling places to inform confused people where they were supposed to vote and to transport the people to their correct polling places.

A volunteer for the Toomey campaign waited outside the St. Francis Church hall, which was a polling place last year but not this year, to direct voters to the correct places. She reported that 11 people had mistakenly shown up to vote there.

Bette M. Hutchins, who lives in the apartment complex at 100 Memorial Drive, went to two places before finding the correct site to vote. Hutchins said she did not find a card in her mail notifying her of a change, so she first went to the Pisani Center, where she voted last year.

The center was not used as a polling place this year, and all she saw there was a sign that postcards listing voting locations would be mailed on Oct. 28.

She went on to the polling center at Maynard School, where election officials looked her up and directed her to the MIT Athletic Center, where Hutchins finally voted.

J. Antonia Vinueza, who voted at St. Francis Church hall last year, was told by one of the campaigns that she was supposed to vote at East End House. But when she arrived at East End House, election officials sent her to Miller River Apartments.

Emanuel D. Lane, who voted at the City Hall Annex last year, said he read a notice in his apartment complex that he was to vote at the Miller River Apartments. When he arrived there, he found that he was supposed to go to Roosevelt towers.

Some suggested that the confusion was the fault of the voters themselves. Election Commissioner Sondra Scheir said, "There is no problem with redistricting. Every voter received a card telling where they would vote."

Joseph H. Kaplan, assistant director of the Election Commission, said, "We feel we've made the best effort possible." Kaplan acknowledged, however, that "in any large system a few are bound to slip through the cracks."

Barbara A. Broussard, manager of Manuel C. Barros's city council campaign, said, "Everyone in the area was notified and knew where they were supposed to go. I think they did a really good job [notifying people]."

Poppy M. Stewart, a clerk at Roosevelt Towers, which was a polling place for the first time this year, said, "turnout has been great." She said there was no confusion, because, "everyone was sent a card."

Some of those who were properly notified of the change were inconvenienced by it. Katherine Down, the election warden at Miller River, said, "people are angry because they don't want to be switched all around."

Rita A. Grassi campaigned for her brother Joe outside of the Miller River polling place. She said, "For the elderly it's hard to get up here. They used to go to St. Francis, and this is a much further walk."