A slate of independent candidates in New Brunswick has asked the federal government to monitor the upcoming local election, claiming county poll workers failed to keep the city's dominant Democratic Party from breaking the rules in a heated election two years ago.

The New Brunswick United campaign's 66-page request to the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey included sworn statements from campaign volunteers who claimed Democrats bullied them, thwarted college-age voters and illegally campaigned inside the polling areas in 2000.

"We're afraid of voter suppression ," said mayoral candidate Keith Thomas, who is running in the Nov. 5 general election with city council candidates Benjamin Rivera and Kelley Stephenson. "We want all provisional ballots counted, and we don't want anyone turned away."

The request is under review, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. Such requests are rare, Drewniak said, although the office did monitor the Newark mayoral election in May.

New Brunswick spokesman Ed Bray said the city does not need federal monitors, and questioned Thomas' motives. "This seems like little more than another attempt to grab some publicity," Bray said.

Among the complaints in the request were that the city stationed several police officers at polling sites two years ago even though a 1985 federal consent decree - prompted by charges that a heavy police presence was intimidating potential voters - prohibits more than one officer per site.

Many of the disagreements involved provisional ballots - the paper ballots filled out by voters whose names do not appear on the election rolls. Because New Brunswick is filled with Rutgers University students, many of whom are newly registered or registered under a previous address, there is usually a large demand for provisional ballots.

In 2000, campaign workers with the independent People's Campaign, whose candidates were counting on votes from students, sought to allow any student whose registration was in question to vote by provisional ballot. Democratic challengers, who are generally wary of the unpredictable student vote, objected to this, according to People's Campaign volunteers.

"At 5 p.m., various Democratic poll clerks stated that provisional ballots were not to be used by students," People's Campaign volunteer Anthony D'Agostino wrote in his account of Election Day 2000. "I believe this was a tactic to stop people from voting."

Another People's Campaign volunteer, Elizabeth Spohr, wrote that Middlesex County Board of Elections officials refused to distribute provisional ballots to students who did not have a court order entitling them to one.

"The board of elections kept on telling me different rules for the provisional ballot," Spohr wrote.

Bray, the city spokesman, said he could not comment on every allegation without reviewing the full complaint.

Richard Planteck, who instructs Middlesex County poll workers as the Voting Machines Warehouse supervisor for the board of elections, said any voters who

claim they live in the election district and claim they are registered to vote are entitled to a provisional ballot, even if they have no identification or proof of address.

Lee Moore, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, confirmed that.

"If someone turns out and there's a problem and they contend they're a registered voter for that district, they're entitled to vote by provisional ballot," Moore said. "At the polls, they are not required to have any identification."

County workers later determine whether the voters are in fact registered before opening the provisional ballots.