BALLOT LIST SHOULD BE CERTIFIED TODAY.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard and Troy Anderson Staff Writers

The number of candidates who filed to run for governor in the recall election soared Tuesday to 247, raising the likelihood of a nightmare ballot for voters and the slow processing of returns on Election Day.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley expects his office to certify candidates by today's 5 p.m. deadline. The number of candidates who will actually appear on the ballot could not be determined Tuesday because of the overwhelming task of verifying signatures and sorting through all the paperwork.

``Even though the deadline was Saturday for filing, we just still can't possibly physically, humanly go through all of those boxes of applications, because we still need to check and certify,'' said Liz Kanter, a spokeswoman for Shelley's office.

``What we're doing is checking the work that the counties have done, as we would do in any race. It takes a lot of time.''

If the final number of candidates exceeds 200, it could cause problems for some counties, including Los Angeles, because of limitations on their ballot materials.

Adding to the difficulties in Los Angeles County are the absence of Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack and her top deputy, Kris Heffron. McCormack is out of state for a week because of a family emergency and for a professional conference, while Heffron is on a long-scheduled vacation.

At the state level, Shelley was not working Tuesday because his wife went into labor with their second child and he was expected to be out at least through today.

Of the 247 people who turned in papers, 131 applications were determined to be complete and 40 were still under review Tuesday evening, with the rest determined to be incomplete. A complete application does not mean the signatures have been verified, only that the correct documents and number of raw signatures were submitted.

Also Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to postpone the recall election, arguing that it will take until March to replace punch-card voting machines the group claims would disenfranchise thousands of Californians.

The suit by the ACLU of Southern California contends that the machines - which caused such furor over ``hanging chads'' in Florida during the 2000 presidential race - have an error rate of 2 percent to 3 percent and could leave many votes uncounted, especially those in heavily minority counties.

The machines currently are used in Los Angeles, Alameda, Mendocino, San Diego, Shasta and Solano counties.

``We know with certainty that tens of thousands of California voters will be disenfranchised if the election is not postponed,'' said Ben Wizner, an ACLU attorney. A hearing date in the case has not yet been set.

Wizner said the ballot will be especially complicated because so many candidates are seeking to succeed Gov. Gray Davis if he is ousted by voters.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, predicted that Oct. 7 would be a ``fiasco.''

Sherman blamed recall activists for refusing to delay submission of the petitions, leaving counties to resurrect punch-card ballots because they don't have enough time to put newer machines into use even as they consolidate polling places.

``A good reason to vote against the recall is that it's a circus,'' Sherman said. ``We're gonna get ridiculed about the punch cards, the fact that we've got fewer polling places. ... It's not going to be good.''

Assistant Registrar-Recorder Michael Petrucello said Los Angeles County will use the traditional punch-card voting machines it has used for the past 35 years.

On the first page, voters will be asked whether they want to recall Davis. Regardless of how voters respond to that issue, they can then select from a long list of candidates for governor if Davis is recalled.

About 15 to 18 candidates will be on each page of what is expected to be a 12-page ballot.

Ventura County officials said their machine-punch ballots can accommodate up to 26 candidates on a single card and that voters will receive additional cards listing the candidates for governor.

Kim Alexander, president and founder of the California Voter Foundation, said she doubts that the long list of candidates will spark an election fiasco in California similar to the 2000 presidential race in Florida.

``You have to realize that the Florida fiasco was a fiasco for several reasons,'' Alexander said. ``Namely, that the state didn't have uniform procedures for dealing with problem ballots and the state also had a very short time line for certifying election results.

``After the Florida 2000 vote-counting fiasco, California state and local election officials very quickly pointed out to California voters that those kinds of problems wouldn't happen here because California has statewide procedures for dealing with problem ballots and we have a much longer time line for certifying election results.''

But Alexander cautioned that it might take election officials time to count the votes.

``One of the reasons we have a 29-day certification window is to give our counties ample time to sort out any problem ballots and reconcile all the votes. I would urge everyone, in particular the news media, to exercise patience on Oct. 8 and accept the fact we will probably not have immediate results of the replacement vote on the recall election if the voters do decide to recall the governor.''

Adding to voter confusion will be the random order of candidate names on the ballot, listed according to a drawing held Monday to essentially create a newly ordered alphabet.

Starting with the letter R, then W, Q and so on, the ballot-names order will be rotated in each of the state's 80 Assembly districts, with R being the first letter in the first Assembly district; the first candidate in the R list will drop to the end of the list in the next district.

Political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the University of Southern California noted that with more than 80 candidates likely, that means some will never be at the top of the ballot.

``The ranking has really created an irony,'' she said. ``It was signed into law to make the playing field more level. Studies indicate there was 5 percent position biases to those at the high end of the ballot.''

``With 115 or more candidates, those poor people whose numbers are in the middle and downward will never even get anywhere near the top of the ballot.''

Staff Writers Lisa Friedman and Mariel Garza contributed to this report.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com