Several of Marvin's demands were backed last night by George J. Abrams, executive director of the Honest Ballot Association. "My feeling is that the procedures are unorthodox," he said.

All of the requests for late ballots should have been honored no matter where they came from, he argued, and observers should have been admitted to the counting.

Abrams charged that ballots were tal- lied as they arrived at Kennedy's office. The Overseers should have waited until last Friday, the deadline for the ballots, he said. "If there ever was a desire to change the results," he explained, "simultaneous counting would have made it more tempting."

"Harvard is in the same position as the unions," he said. "And, like the unions, you may find someone trying to get legislation or taking you to court to get your election process changed."

In fact, Marvin said yesterday that one of his friends wants to take the ballot issue to court. "That's not my way," he added.

Beginning last February, Marvin showed what his way was. He broke all traditions by beginning a campaign to win election to the overseers.

When be started out, 12 nominess had already been picked quietly by a committee of the Associated Harvard Alumni.

Nomination by the alumni committee is the traditional route to the Board of Overseers. But anyone can become a candidate for the Board--which has the final say on all academic matters at the University--by getting 200 alumni signatures on a petition. There have been four such drives in this century.

Marvin sent out hundreds of nominating postcards to alumni--and 436 were signed and returned. But many, according to Kennedy, had to be disqualified because their signers did not hold degrees