Council Moves to Postpone Vietnam Referendum Count

A Cambridge City Council request for a special legislative act postponing the count on the Cambridge Neighborhood Committee on Vietnam's anti-war initiative petition until Nov. 28--hree weeks after election day--is now before the State legislature.

Councillor Cornelia B. Wheeler, who asked for the act to allow late absentee votes to be counted, said yesterday she was "fairly confident" that the legislature would pass the bill.

The City Manager awarded the contract for the Vietnam ballots yesterday morning. Soon after, the City Council passed the appropriation for the printing job.

The City also outlined the procedure for the late count of ballots. If the special legislative act passes, the number of ballots--but not the results--would be counted on election day. The ballots would then be sealed and sent to a vault in the Harvard Trust Company. On November 28, the Election Commission would tally the ballots, along with any absentee ballots received by then.

If the act fails to pass before election day, the Vietnam ballots would be counted along with regular City ballots beginning on November 8.

A representative of each side on the petition would accompany the ballots to and from the bank to assure that no tampering occurred. These observers would be Hans F. Loeser, attorney for the CNCV, and American Legion state commander Leo F. Malloy, who is leading 16 Cambridge veterans' posts in a drive for the defeat of the anti-war referendum. Cambridge City Manager Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 gave his blessing to the anti-referendum campaign last Tuesday. DeGuglielmo, "speaking as a private citizen" urged veterans to work for the defeat of the petition.

At present, CNCV volunteers are working on an intensive door-to-door canvass of Cambridge voters. According to campaign manager Carolyn Carr, they hope to complete this phase of the campaign Wednesday. After that, the group will attempt to reach those voters who were unavailable or undecided the first time around. The CNCV will also begin leaf-leting and planning for election day.

According to Mrs. Carr, CNCV is maintaining a strict policy of non-involvement with the city elections. She said CNCV canvassers are urging voters to disregard local candidates' stands on the Vietnam question and to vote on their records on Cambridge issues.