Daily News from New York, New York • 140

DAILY iNEWS, MONDAY, JULY 3, 1972 fit vi is i i i COTY By EDWARD O'NEILL wjgJA -Rv PflRRPT RVUIWR Soecial Corresnondent of The News tion that followed Primary Day, June 20 the wildest, most raucous and complaint-filled since. the days of the old infamous paper ballot the biggest surprise of all is that anybody was surprised. This includes Mayor Lindsav. who last WMlr rfomanjlajl a "full Reykjavik, Iceland, July 2 Rejecting alibis put forward by his own agents that illness caused by fatigue brought the two-day postponement of the world championship chess match, Bobby Fischer said today that he will not appear here unless his explanation" from Board of Elections President William Larkin; also the entire state Legislature, which passed an unworkable ballot rotation bill with built-in, guar- financial demands are met ameea cnaos; ana liov. Kockefel- ler, who signed the measure over i the written objections of the elec tions The element is even harder to understand in the face of hitherto unrevealed evidence that the board, beleaguered by controversy, racked by hundreds of court challenges and hobbled by the last-minute mandate to print different "ballots for 4,300 by the organizers.

Robert James (Bobby) Fischer, the gangling enfant terrible of the chess world, who has called himself the "unofficial world champion" for nearly a decade, eaid in an exclusive interview by phone from his New York hideaway that he is standing1 behind his demands for 30 of the gate receipts for the 24-game match with champion Boris Vasilyevich Spassky. Heretofore Fischer's demand had been flatly rejected by Gud-mundur Thorarinsson, president cf the Icelandic Chess Federation. But Thorarinsson said that h'e still believed that "financial differences could be overcome." Fischer, 29, failed to appear today for the opening game with Spassky, 35, at the auditorium here. The match was postponed for two days to give the American challenger a last chance to play. city election districts, actually made a valiant 11th hour effort to have the primary election date postponed.

This foundered, we learn be- hind-scenes, due to a court-im posed requirement that several thousand persons be served personally with papers in order to bring the whole mess before the bench. This was a physical im possibility in the short time re maining. Associated Press Cablephoto Chess Champion Boris Spassky (left) drinks toast with U.S. charge d'affaires Theodore Tremblay at Reykjavik. The fact that the election was held at all is a miracle and due mainly to heroic board personnel who labored around the clock to Euwe said that the postpone get voting machines in place in time.

In many instances, machines were set up only hours before the balloting began. The results were inevitable and predictable: Hundreds, of machines broke down, crippling the election process in polling places all over town. Excessively long lines that inundated the polls, a condition ment was made primarily to protect the Icelandic financial backers of the match who stand to lose $75,000 if it doesn't come off and to preserve the image of the game. The winner's end of the $125,000 purse is $78,000, and each player gets 30 of the income from the sale of film and TV rights. If Fischer refuses to appear, Spassky apparently will win by default.

Although the terms are 10 Spassky, the broad-shouldered champ from the Soviet Union, reluctantly agreed to the postponement idea raised by Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation. "If he( Fischer) does not show up at noon on Tuesday (8 a.m. New York time) for the drawing of the lots," Euwe said, "he -will he disqualified and lose the right to play for the In a move taken without official approval to get Fischer here. Freysteinn Thorbergsson, a maverick member of the Icelandic Chess Federation and a friend of Fischer, flew to New York tonight to negotiate a compromise with Fischer on the financial demand. Euwe said that the postpone- When Spassky won the title from another Russian, Tigran Petrosian, in the last championship event three years ago, the purse was $1,400.

Each player is permitted three postponements for medical reasons. They must be certified by the official match doctor. Before the Fischer interview in New York, Fred Cramer, here representing Fischer said two cablegrams one from Fischer's doctor and the other from the United States Chess Federation had been sent here, but both were lost. He indicated the cables called for a postponement because of Fischer's health. complicated by a complex ballot and legislative redistricting that threw people unknowingly into other election districts.

As a result of postal delays, hundreds of Board of Elections cards informing voters of a change in voting locations were not delivered until days after the primary. An epidemic of short tempers when people were told they couldn't vote at their old polling places. Many were also belatedly informed that they couldn't vote, period, because they'd been regis tered by volunteers at nonboard-supervised good government times greater than any prize money previously paid a chess player, Fischer insisted on adding his 30 gate receipt demand. agencies. Many, It turned out, were registered without being enrolled in a party a legal fact that barred them from participating in the primary of any party.

Mass confusion because lists of presidential delegates, rotated on every machine, carried no identification as to the man they intended to back. -iutt Martha Says She's Mappy The nub of the problem started with the Legislature when it passed the rotation bill without changing the political calendar. By HELEN THOMAS Washington, July 2 (UPI) Martha Mitchell said today she is happy her husband got out of politics as she had demanded but she made it clear she does not believe This presumed a business-as-usual election for the most comprehensive and complex primary in the history of the city and state. Warned of the Practical Difficulties Ahead On April 6, the board warned Rockefeller: "The unqualified conclusion which we have reached is that such a law would be impossible to put into effect this year with the time limitations imposed by the present political calendar." her troubles are over. A Frontal Assault "I'm still a political prisoner," she said in a telephone call to this reporter.

"I can't talk lonf. I am calling surreptitiously." When pressed as to whether her husband's resignation yesterday as President Nixon's reelection campaign director made her happy, she said: "Sure, that's what I wanted." John N. Mitchell, former attorney general, cited responsibility to his wife and family as the reason for his resignation. Mrs. Mitchell said she was call On April 27, the board followed up with a panicky telegram to Rockefeller and leaders of the Legislature: "Rotation for New York City is impossible under the present printing system unless extension of at least 10 more days beyond June 20 is allowed by law; otherwise the Board of Elections must use untried computer system proposal costing $750,000 against $350,000 for present printing system, with unpredictability of untested automation, breakdowns or failing to produce, eventuating in no primary election." Rocky signed the bill anyway.

Larkin and his men, meanwhile, were faced with these problems: (1) Many printers, awed by. the mechanical problem of producing ballots in a short time with inadequate equipment, abruptly withdrew their bids; (2) More than 300 hearings and court challenges, some not resolved until only a few days before the primary; (3) The certainty that many designated elections inspectors just wouldn't show up for the meager $20 they'd get for a long, vexing primary day. (It happened many failed to appear.) Result: One big, sprawling mess. ing from her home in Washing- ton exclusive Watergate Apart ments. She also said she won-1 Conclusion There must be a better way to run a primary dered why no one had asked a election.

question about her at President Nixon's news conference last week, adding, "I've been a prison er for so long." Then Mrs. Mitchell hung up the telephone abruptly, ending another chapter perhaps the last one in one of the longest running stores of the Nixon administration. Two weeks ago, Mrs. Mitchell flew to California with her hus The Issue Comes Home to the Legislators Aftermath: Look for a score of bills to amend the election law that will go before the 1973 Legislature a receptive group this time since most of the Albany solons were the loudest screamers when brought face to face with the snafus in their own election: districts. One certain proposal will be to upgrade primary day to the same status of a general election day, with full voting hours, time off and all the trimmings.

Primaries have become important in this state, even if less than 15 of the vote bothered to come out on June 20. Such a change will be critical in New York City next year, with a citywide election on tap and 25 possible -candidates for the Democratic mayoral nomination, plus the new law that requires a runoff if the top man fails to get 40 of the vote. Other proposals: A mandatory cutoff date before which all challenges must be resolved and the ballot on that date becomes the stabilized ballot for the election; additional pay for poll inspectors, with penalties for no-show and the offer of exemption from jury duty for those who agree to serve at the polls; decentralization of the Board uf into five autonomous entities band to attend a Hollywood dinner where they and Mrs. Nixon were to be the guests of honor. A week ago last Saturday she flew to the Westchester (N.Y.) Country' Club, where she has many friends.

Mitchell later flew up to ioinv her and the UPI photo Lovelies Susan Crips (left) and Andre Breedlove, sans their bikini bras fare group of cheering and needling males on Santa Monica, Calif, beach. Gals, doing their own woman's lib thing, are protest-, ing (they insistXthat ladies are unfairly 1 because they cant legally go topless on beacW turned TJiBu-sday ton t. himcUeheairingft'andimplai get-, their home here. I ting decisions irom the central board..