At least a dozen Harvard students who filled out voter registration forms in Massachusetts during last month's Institute of Politics (IOP) drive were turned away at the polls yesterday, the victim of what appeared to be a bureaucratic snafu.

The IOP's ten-day Harvard Youth for Political Empowerment (HYPE) program provided registration forms in dining halls, and in a culminating festival in the Quad last month.

The IOP promised to send the forms to the offices of the appropriate secretaries of state, who would in turn process them and forward them to the appropriate municipalities.

But the Cambridge Election Commission said yesterday it never received any ballots from the drive.

"We had numerous calls from students who registered through that drive," said Teresa S. Neighbor, the commission's executive director. "We've searched extensively through our records, but we have no affidavits."

Election officers at the 29 Garden Street polling location said they began noticing a trend around 10 a.m., when voters who had registered in Currier House, at the Science Center and in first-year dormitories were not on the voter list.

Then it happened at the Quincy House, Putnam Street, and Gund Hall polling places.

Registration drive officials said the registration forms were definitely mailed.