He blamed Smith for being lax about record-keeping unless the president himself supervised.

"It was me who demanded that Ed keep good records," Hyman said. "Ed wanted me to sign blank checks."

Candidate Rudd W. Coffey '97, who ran second in The Crimson's poll, further criticized Hyman for claiming that this year's council had passed the most legislation ever.

"We have no idea how many resolutions were passed in 1984 or 1985 or any number of years. We simply do not have those records," said Coffey.

Hyman said that the claims are based on research of previous years done by the council president from the fall of 1994, David L. Hanselman '94-'95.

"But what does it matter if nine years ago or 11 years ago, they passed one more bill than we did?" Hyman said. "The point is we're headed in a new direction with this council."

Hyman is not the only one targeted by accusations of exaggeration. Coffey has also been criticized for hypocrisy.

In a flyer Coffey distributed Sunday night, he claims that "[his critics] say I want to take your money. Truth is I voted against raising termbill fees and sponsored your freedom to choose not to pay at all."

But in an e-mail sent out to the council early last month, and later posted on the harvard.general news group, Coffey proposed a resolution that would make the council termbill payment mandatory, while increasing the fee from $20 to $40.

"Some of these things are relatively shady," said Brian R. Blais '97, who is not running for president or vice president.

Blais said most candidates' statements of "support" and "helped to pass" were too vague to be very meaningful.

Smith took particular aim at Hyman on this front.

"Rob has the ability to take credit for things he was only tangentially involved with," Smith said. "He was president, these things appeared under his watch, but they were not his doing."

Coffey admitted that most campaign posters did give an inflated impression of candidates' achievements, but said it was necessary for the campaign.

"None of those are things I did by myself," said Coffey. "But people are not going to vote for the Campus Life Committee that I led, but me."

Voting in the first-ever campus-wide election of the council president and vice president began yesterday and will continue until Friday at 5 p.m