Unfortunately, the security for the Tuesday lunch ballots was even worse than for the Monday ballots. When I returned to the office at 7:15 p.m., I found that the second box had been stuffed with loose ballots. There is no way of determining whether these ballots were filled out at a polling place or in the council office.

My first inkling that the council officers had any objection to my going in and out of the office while administering this referendum was when I read the article in yesterday's Crimson (May 11 1994), in which the council secretary is quoted as threatening to file charges with the Administrative Board against The Crimson, and against me, if The Crimson ran a story about ballots being left unsecured in the office. Yesterday, during the day, I was further threatened with criminal charges by several council officers.

I checked my constitution and bylaws immediately when I returned home from the council office early Tuesday morning. There is absolutely no provision for turning in keys when one resigns, graduates, retires or loses an election. Again, this is exactly my objection to their conduct in leaving the ballot box out in the open in the office.

Everything about my conduct in this matter has been open, straightforward and public, from my request for witnesses, to my telephone call to Mr. Liston from the office, to my meeting with Dean Epps the next morning. I have done nothing but fulfill the request of the Committee on College Life and the invitation of Mr. Liston, to help ensure a free and fair election. As a result of doing my job, and doing it too well for the tastes of Mr. Liston and [council Secretary Brandon C. Gregoire '95], I am being barraged with threats of retaliatory action, ranging from criminal charges to Administrative Board action. I am therefore pleading with you to help resolve this matter before it winds up in the courts. I take their threats quite seriously and I feel quite fearful of them. And I do not feel I should be subject to this sort of harassment in retaliation for the wrongdoing I uncovered.

With regard to the election itself, my worst fears have come true. Despite overwhelming student support for the reforms proposed in the referendum, the election is on the verge of collapse due to the refusal of the Undergraduate Council officers to take basic precautions against fraud. Dean Jewett, when we met with the Committee on College Life back in April, I requested that the College step in and run the next vote. You replied that it would be a sad day for Harvard when the student government could not be trusted to run a referendum. I submit that today is that sad day. And if the council's new move to prevent referenda from ever arising again is allowed to stand, this embarrassing condition will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

I would like to meet with you to discuss these issues at your earliest convenience. I will be in contact with your assistant.

Sincerely

Anjalee C. Davis '96