And kaufman, a prominent rent control supporter in Cambridge, said he, too, does not want to see the issue on the state ballot.

"It might be easier for them to get a favorable vote statewide because they have access to real estate money," Kaufman said. "The terrain is much more favorable to them."

Jillson, the homeowners' coalition president, is confident. In initial polling, she said rent control has garnered little support outside Cambridge and Boston, two of the few cities that employ it.

But newly-elected Cambridge City Councillor Kathleen L. Born promised that if the issue comes to a statewide vote, "tenants will raise funds."

"It may be a David and Goliath," she said, "but you know who won that battle.

Fraud Allegations

Allegations of misconduct are not unusual in the frequently bruising rent control battle, where technical infractions can result in charges of fraud.

There are a lot of little rules to break, and the people involved in the debate are the kind of folks who know what happened at..., say, the 1918 state constitutional convention.

In this latest skirmish over how to count petition signatures, the pro-rent control forces have accused their opponents of unethical tactics in soliciting support.

"We're very confident that we've done it with honesty and integrity and we regret that the other side has not," said Cavellini, the Cambridge taxi driver and fervent rent control supporter.

"We have no way of knowing if it's a conspiracy, but we know that there was fraud," he added.

In addition to the instance when one person signed 300 different names on a petition--a case of fraud which rent control opponents admit to--the petition drive saw several other alleged infractions, Cavellini said.

A lawyer from the secretary of state's office testified this week that some of the state's voter registration lists appeared to be missing, and Cavellini accused the anti-rent control group of stealing them.

The voter lists were used by both parties to verify the signatures.

Cavellini also said the wording of the petition was "very confusing" and made it sound as if the petitioners favored rent control. Such tactics violate the spirit of the state's initiative petition process, according to attorney Nadler.