"They are handing out literature pricing the apartments at $50,60,70 thousand. Those figures are fantasy," said one voter who asked not to be named. And other said the measure threatened.

Said John A. Shetterly '66, "For economic reasons it favored me to vote for it, but the yuppifying of the neighborhood caused me to vote against it."

But if most voters and tenants interviewed yesterday expressed dismay at the referendum, landlords gave Proposition 1-2-3 their support.

Paul G. Ahern, a self-described small landlord said he voted for the proposition because "I think price control has been in the city too long, and there's a bunch of liberals running it." He added that under the system, he does not get enough money to to fix up his property. "It's terrible," he said.

And a few tenants said they backed the proposition--although mostly for personal reasons. Said one tenant who asked not to be named, "I have a four-family house under rent control. I would like to give one unit to my daughter and one to my son and under this system I can't do that."

Voters also said they worried that the referendum would give universities communities like Harvard undue power, with one explaining that he voted against Proposition 1-2-3 "so that you Harvardites don't grab it [property] all."

Among Harvard students and faculty, there was little consensus about the ballot referendum.

"I am against 1-2-3 and my father is for it, and it provides for some interesting family discussions," said Aimee F. Hendrigan '93, a city resident whose father is a landlord in North Cambridge.

Many interviewed at the polls said they were confused about 1-2-3 and attributed that confusion to a feeling of separation from the city at large. "A lot of Harvard students don't consider themselves to be Cambridge residents," said Becki L. Berner '90, who volunteered for council candidate Kenneth E. Reeves '72 outside the Quincy House polling place.

Nonetheless, campaigners are predicting that Harvard votes could still make a difference. According to Martin F. Brennan '89, campaign manager for Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55, Harvard typically brings in about 200 to 350 votes, most of which usually go to perennial favorite Councillor Walter J. Sullivan.

But Brennan said that students could be the deciding factor in choosing the composition of the council. "If students vote, they'll vote progressive."

Jennifer L. Greenstein, Juliet E. Headrick, Suzanne Petren Moritz, Philip M. Rubin and Dhananjai Shivakumar contributed to the reporting of this article.