One hundred eighty-nine Harvard and Radcliffe students will help tabulate Massachusetts election returns Tuesday night.

They will work in the Cambridge National Guard Armory, which is to be the central clearing house for new coverage of election returns in Massachusetts. Most of the students will work as telephone operators, clerks, and messengers. Fourteen, however, most of them graduate students, will have supervisory positions.

The clearing house will be run by the National Election Service, an election reporting organization made up of the three major television networks and the two wire services. The five organizations divided the country into sections, with each reporting the returns in one section. The National Broadcasting Co. is in charge of the Massachusetts operation.

An official at the Part-Time Employment Office said yesterday that the jobs were among the most popular ever listed with the office. Hiring began one morning at 9 a.m. and all the positions were filled by soon after 10 the same day.