Boston

Mrs. Louise Day Hicks, nationally known for her slogan "neighborhood schools for neighborhood children," is expected to win easily in her race for a seat on the Boston city council as Boston voters go to the polls today.

A total of nine seats are at stake on the city council and five on the school committee.

The campaign for city council has been relatively quiet this year. The incumbent councillors have spent the entire past week closeted in the council chambers debating the rent control question and Mrs. Hicks, former school committee chairman and candidate for mayor, has failed to match the outspokenness of her earlier campaigns for office.

Mrs. Hicks has been a steadfast opponent of the racial imbalance laws in Massachusetts which forbid school enrollments more than 50 per cent non-white. She also has stubbornly opposed proposals to remedy racial imbalance in the city of Boston through busing.

Her success in attracting a large number of votesin Boston's mayoral election two years ago was thought by observers then to signal a growing urban-white backlash.

In the school committee race, four incumbents, including present chairman, John J. Kerrigan, from Dorchester, are seeking re-election to the five man committee. During the campaign there have been some rumors that various members of the school committee had gotten jobs in the school system for relatives, but few candidates made public accusations to this effect.

One of the challengers for a school committee seat is Mrs. Dorothy Bisbee, a 73-year-old grandmother and former schoolteacher.

While Bostonians are voting, 38 other Massachusetts cities are also holding elections, most of them to choose new mayors. Of particular interest is the mayoral election in Somerville. There, political newcomer Rev. S. Lester Ralph, an Episcopal minister, is running against a candidate accused of using his post as clerk of the Somerville District Court to further his political ambitions.

At an election eve WGBH-TV rally for all the Boston city council candidates, Mrs. Hicks pledged support for the 'forgotten Bostonian... the middle class man who pays the bills for Boston." The candidate from South Boston was surrounded by high school and college age students waving "Hicks for City Council" placards.

Cambridge

Approximately 30,000 Cambridge voters will go to the polls today to choose nine city councillors and seven school committeemen.

Seven incumbent councillors are seeking reelection; four of the present school committeemen are running again. Two incumbent school committeemen- Daniel F. Clinton and Gustave M. Solomons- are seeking council seats.

Though most of the incumbents are favored to win their races, there is a good possibility that one of the current councillors- Daniel J. Hayes Jr.- will lose his re-election bid.

Because of the City's complicated Proportional Representation electoral system, the final election results will not be determined for several days. The Cambridge Election Commission will begin counting the ballots on Wednesday morning.

Earlier this fall, attempts were made to have a referendum on rent control on the ballot. The proposed rent control ordinance however, was ruled unconstitutional by a Middlesex SuperiorCourt judge.

Since rent control is not on the ballot, the turnout for the elections will probably not be as high as the 31,383 who came out in 1967. when a controversial Vietnam referendum was on the ballot. Registration has fallen to 42,638 from the 1967 total of 44,686.