Harvard Students Turned Away From Polls

At least a dozen Harvard students who filled out voter registration forms in Massachusetts during last month's Institute of Politics (IOP) drive were turned away at the polls yesterday, the victim of what appeared to be a bureaucratic snafu.

The IOP's ten-day Harvard Youth for Political Empowerment (HYPE) program provided registration forms in dining halls, and in a culminating festival in the Quad last month.

The IOP promised to send the forms to the offices of the appropriate secretaries of state, who would in turn process them and forward them to the appropriate municipalities.

But the Cambridge Election Commission said yesterday it never received any ballots from the drive.

"We had numerous calls from students who registered through that drive," said Teresa S. Neighbor, the commission's executive director. "We've searched extensively through our records, but we have no affidavits."

Election officers at the 29 Garden Street polling location said they began noticing a trend around 10 a.m., when voters who had registered in Currier House, at the Science Center and in first-year dormitories were not on the voter list.

Then it happened at the Quincy House, Putnam Street, and Gund Hall polling places.

Registration drive officials said the registration forms were definitely mailed.

"I watched [them] all go out, and I promise they got in the hands of the mailman," said registration drive co-captain Heather A. Woodruff '03. "What happened from the mail to the states, unfortunately, I can't tell you."

Catie A. Honeyman '04 went straight from the polls to the Freshman Dean's Office and then to the Office of the Registrar, before learning that she could vote via escrow. In escrow voting, ballots are ignored unless the election is so close that the ballots could break a tie.

"Apparently my vote still doesn't count; we voted for the formality," she said. "I'm really frustrated."

Honeyman said that election officials told her tell the University about the problem.

Other voters were not told about escrow ballots, however, and some left the polls to call their hometown electoral commissions.

"A few students were disappointed," said Putnam Street officer Marie Guzeil. "It wasn't worth it to register for future elections, it was this particular presidential election they were concerned about."

As of 4:30, only 12 students had called the Cambridge commission and been told about the escrow option, Neighbor said.

It is not clear who is to blame.

The Boston office of Mass. Secretary of State William Galvin was not available for comment.

The IOP maintains it is not responsible.

E. Clarke Tucker '03, co-captain of the drive, and Pforzheimer House captain W. Lucien Smith '03 vow that all forms were turned into the IOP.

Neighbor said an IOP staffer told her that Galvin's office reported receiving the ballots.

"Most of the forms were fairly straightforward, and there were people there to help [the students]," Smith said of the dining hall drives. "I couldn't imagine it was any fault of the students who registered that the

registration got screwed up."

Neighbor will initiate a post-election investigation.

Andrew M. Murphy '00-'01 considers himself lucky. The Winthrop House resident missed the IOP's deadline and had to register on his own--only to find that his registration had been processed while drive participants' had not.

"I'm glad I did because I feel really strongly about the election," he said.

Students said that although Massachusetts was not considered a contested state in this year's election, they regretted being unable to participate.

"The voter turnout is usually so low that it sucks when people who really want to vote can't," said Neil E. Kennish '01.