Despite the efforts of candidates and volunteers doing last minute, sidewalk campaigning yesterday, only 21, 261 of Cambridge's 40,000 registered voters showed up at the polls yesterday.

Turnouts for primary races usually fall short of voter participation in general elections, but yesterday's showing surprised even seasoned pollsters like Bill Willard.

Willard, the warden of the Gund polling station on the corner of Quincy and Cambridge Streets, has been affiliated with the Cambridge Election Committee since 1981.

By 1 pm, after witnessing only 18 voters cast ballots-an average of three voters per hour since the station's 7 am opening-Willard was expressing dismay.

He chastised Cantabrigians for neglecting their voting privileges.

"Apathy seems to rule," Willard said. "It's like you have to beat the bushes to get people to come out [to the polls]."

While some registered voters attributed their abstention to a dearth of compelling issues in the 1998 campaigns, others cited discontent with politics in general.

One Cambridge resident blamed the sex scandal surrounding President Clinton for his disaffection.

"Politics...I don't know...so much in the news lately has just made me tired of it," said the man.

Whether the President's troubles affected the fortunes of yesterday's Democratic candidates was a matter of debate among local pundits.

Some suggested that low voter turnout as a result of the White House controversy would do more electoral harm to local Democrats than to Republicans.

Others insisted that Massachusetts, and especially Cambridge, remains so liberal that the crisis in Washington would not resonate here.

One polling station official scoffed at the idea of a fall-out effect.

"Nope, no way," he said. "There won't even be a ripple."

Among those Cantabrigians who were not dissuaded from voting by the turmoil in the nation's capital, many expressed disappointment with an uninspiring field of candidates.

In the 42 precincts of Cambridge's Ward 6, voters consistently referred to a sense of duty when asked why they were casting ballots.

Brenda S. Prescott, a Cantabrigian and registered Democrat, explained her compulsion to go to the polls.

"I have voted since I was 18 in almost every election," Prescott said. "It's the right thing for a citizen to do."

Like many of her neighbors, however, Prescott admitted she felt little attachment to any of the candidates.

James F. Simpson, a Cambridge resident officiating at the Quincy House polling station, offered an analysis of the languor surrounding the primary races.

"There is a lack of vital issues and a sense that the election is running without substance in the rhetoric," Simpson said.

On a day marked by apathy, some passions were aroused over the Republican gubernatorial race between Acting Gov. A. Paul Cellucci and his challenger, Treasurer Joseph D. Malone '78.

Ron J. Amidon of Wilmington, who as a registered "Undecided" can choose which party's ballot he will fill out upon arriving at the polls, conveyed firm opinions of the candidates' characters.

"I can't stand Malone," Wilmington said. "He's a joke."

After decrying Malone's alleged "donut fund" of state money, Wilmington endorsed Cellucci on the basis of his connection to his predecessor, former Gov. William F. Weld'66.

Despite the involvement of Harvard alumni like Malone and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger '64 in several of the races, most Harvard students abstained from voting.

While some offered no excuse for their lack of political engagement, others cited obligations and connections to contests in their home states.

Andrew D. Sacher '01 of Texas explained that he remains registered there and plans to cast an absentee ballot.

"That's where my concerns lie," Sacher explained.

Asked to comment about other undergraduates who might vote in yesterday's primary, Sacher suggested that only a small minority of students were involved.

"I know some people who worked on campaigns around here, and they're interested," Sacher said, "but not many others."

Cory Waldinger '01, who spent the summer working for Democratic Congressional candidate Christopher F.O. Gabrieli '81 and did vote yesterday, offered an explanation for the indifference on campus.

"Most people don't think what people do in Congress affects them," Waldinger said.

She and other young volunteers spent much of yesterday posted outside polling stations in hopes of encouraging voters to back their candidates.

But the paucity of ballot casters proved discouraging.

Wade Boykin, a 26-year-old stumping for Democratic State Rep. candidate Dennis A. Benzan on the corner of Quincy and Cambridge Streets, said traffic had been "a little slow."

"It's frustrating," admitted another Gabrieli volunteer, Haley H. Scein of Tufts.

In fact, by the middle of the day, a line of abandoned placards by the Gund polling station attested to general disappointment.

Nearby, two supporters of State Rep. Alvin E. Thompson, a Democrat running for re-election, chuckled over the symbolism suggested by the deserted signs.