A steady downpour kept many Cambridge voters away from the polls yesterday, dampening the election chances of liberal candidates running for the Cambrizge City Council.

Approximately 23,5000 voters slogged their way through the rain yesterday, as opposed to the 28,000 who voted in the last city council election in 1975.

The turnout rate in districts where Harvard students voted declined even more sharply, as 725 votes were cast in two precincts yesterday, opposed to 926 ballots in 1975.

Dana M. Stein '80, an aide to liberal candidate David Sullivan, said that although the number of Harvard undergraduates voting yesterday was about the same as in 1975, the turnout "was still disappointing in terms of the effort we put in."

"Students didn't want to get their feet wet," Stein said.

"Many students we had canvassed as pro-Sullivan just said no, we're not going out, it's too wet," he said.

Two reform candidates and the state representative who co-sponsored the Massachusetts anti-abortion bill defeated anti-busing incumbents for Boston City

Council and School Committee seats yesterday, while two reform referendum questions lost.

John D. O'Bryant, a black candidate who finished strongly in the 1975 election, will be the first non-white to serve on the school committee in over 80 years.