"In a way it's like the southern states," she said. "[The election commissioners] make it so hard, it's not really worth it to register."

Despite the presence of television cameras, Rep. Robert Drinan (D-Mass.) and John Kerry of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Election Commission clerks refused to register about 30 students at the "register-in" held Oct. 8. The clerks referred the students to the Board of Election Commissioners, saying that people who are not self-supporting must have an appeal hearing.

Twenty-four of the Harvard students again brought suit before Davis. On Oct. 30--three days before the election--Davis ruled that, in 21 of the cases, the Election Commission had not produced enough evidence to deny the students registration.

Davis ordered that the students be allowed to vote, but that their ballots be specially marked, pending appeal by the city.

In the case of the three other students, Davis found doubt that they intended to make Cambridge their legal residence.

The city chose to appeal 19 of the cases. However, as the election came and went, the issue seemed forgotten until the students received letters in June informing them that the city was striking their names from the rolls.

The students again brought suit, resulting in a court decision that summer which declared that rules mandating a specific time of residence in a city are illegal.

"A student may register to vote the day he moves into Pennypacker 43, if he can show that he is living there now," said John Brode, an activist with the Cambridge Committee for Voter Registration (CCVR). CCVR distributed 60,000 flyers that summer, informing young people of their voters' rights.

A Massachusetts law passed in the spring of 1972 requires a city to open registration places at a college if at least 10 students make such a request.