Undergraduate Council members say this Sunday's vote over the impeachment of council Vice President John A. Burton '01 will be decided by a razor thin margin.

At last weekend's Undergraduate Council meeting, 34 members of the council--slightly under two-thirds--voted to overrule council President Fentrice D. Driskell '01 and proceed with the impeachment of Burton. This Sunday, a two-thirds vote will be necessary to remove Burton from office.

While a vote in favor of hearing the case against Burton is not necessarily a vote to have him removed from office, leaders on both sides of the controversy agree last week's vote is a harbinger of a close vote this Sunday.

"It won't be an overwhelming vote either way," Driskell said.

Council members from both sides say a number of factors--including the votes of new members chosen in council special elections, the vocal opposition to impeachment on the part of several campus organizations and the secret ballot voting mechanism--will make the outcome virtually impossible to predict.

They say the impeachment vote may be most complicated by the special elections, held to replace members who left the council during the semester. The elections will close tonight at midnight.

As a result of the elections, this Sunday's meeting will include 20 new council members. No one really knows how these new members will vote.

"[The outcome is] completely unpredictable, because...we don't know what their thoughts are about the allegations, and we don't know how much they know about the matter," said Kyle D. Hawkins '02, who is one of ten sponsors of a bill to remove Burton from office.