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Leverett Towers Will Vote In Graham-Toomey Contest

By Steven A. Gield

State Appellate Court Judge Donald R. Grant ruled yesterday that Leverett Towers' residents will vote in county district four, where Independent Saundra Graham is challenging incumbent Democrat John J. Toomey for state representative.

On October 22, the Cambridge Election Commission sent out notices instructing students at Leverett Towers and the MIT dormitories at 3 Ames Street to vote in county voting district four, instead of the districts they had voted in during this year's primaries.

A Middlesex County Court judge delivered an injunction last Tuesday against the commission, voiding the notices. Grant overruled the injunction, returning the affected dormitories to district four.

Following the notification, Graham campaign aide Benjamin Ross said the change will benefit Graham, the more liberal of the two candidates.

Toomey Unworried

But Toomey, who has held his seat since 1943, said yesterday he expects to "do as well as anyone" among the additional students. He said he had opposed their inclusion in his district because "it doesn't make sense that they should vote in one district for the primaries and another for the general election."

Leverett Towers has 43 registered Cambridge voters and the affected MIT dormitory has an additional 95.

Election commissioner Sondra Scheir said that before this year's primaries, all of Leverett House had been listed by the commission at the same address, 25 DeWolfe. Though Leverett Towers had been grouped for that one election with the rest of the House, "it is and always has been" physically in district four, Scheir said.

Election Commissioner George Goverman said yesterday a Graham campaign worker had told the commission in August that the Ames Street MIT dormitories belonged in district four. Goverman said there would have been less "fuss" about the notification had the commission acted earlier.

The commission did not sent out took longer to be convinced than others," Scheir said.

notifications of the change until October because "we had to research the matter with the city solicitor, and some members

At last Monday's Cambridge City Council meeting, Mayor Alfred E. Velucci and four of the eight other Councilors proposed an order asking City Manager James L. Sullivan to conduct an investigation of the "arbitrary and capricious" notification.

Councilor Francis H. Duehay used a parliamentary rule to postpone discussion of the proposal until next Monday's council meeting.

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