SIGNATURE COUNT CONTINUES.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

State officials inched closer Monday to calling California's first-ever gubernatorial recall election, as actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign adviser said he is close to deciding to run on the recall ballot.

Signature counts from all 58 counties are due Wednesday at 5 p.m., and officials said Secretary of State Kevin Shelley could certify the election by the end of the week. If that occurs, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has to call the election within 60 to 80 days - meaning a Tuesday in late September to early October, barring successful court challenges.

Schwarzenegger's political adviser said it looks increasingly likely that the actor will run to succeed Gov. Gray Davis on the recall ballot and that he is prepared to file the paperwork more quickly than previously anticipated.

``I talked to him a couple of days ago - he sounded like he was going to run to me,'' said political consultant George Gorton. ``He's not given me a final OK. If you ask me, I think he's running.''

Schwarzenegger, who is in Europe promoting his latest film, ``Terminator 3,'' said last week he would take another month to make his decision. But events will likely force him to act sooner because of a court decision Friday that requires counties to speed up the verification process so all numbers are reported by Wednesday.

The possible candidate for governor will return from Europe today, Gorton said, but if he happens to be out of town when Bustamante sets the election date, he has already signed over power of attorney for others to fill out paperwork in his place.

The only other major declared candidate so far is U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, who provided $1.5 million in personal funds to fuel the signature-gathering drive.

Recall supporters have said they turned in more than 1.6 million signatures, more than the 897,158 needed to force an election. Counties are sorting through the petitions and a spokesman at Shelley's office said county workers have reported counting 987,306 raw signatures so far, but that these have not all gone through the verification process yet.

As counties struggle to make the Wednesday deadline, they expect to be even more hard-pressed to coordinate and pay for a quickly called and unprecedented election.

Some counties are already preparing for regularly scheduled elections on Nov. 4, and to call a special election a few weeks before that would add significantly to their burden in staff time and costs.

In Los Angeles County, the election is expected to cost $13 million, said Registrar-Recorder Conny B. McCormack.

``We don't have, at this point, the resources or capacity to do that, but we are exploring how to do that,'' McCormack said.

She expects to discuss the issue with the L.A. Board of Supervisors today, in closed session because there is litigation filed against the Secretary of State and various county registrars relating to the speed of the counting.

Ventura County had an easier time doing the counting, and in fact finished last week, but will also struggle to hold an unexpected election.

Davis supporters filed a court appeal Monday seeking to delay the certification process until arguments can be heard for their contention that the petitions were circulated fraudulently by out-of-state petition gatherers who were not properly registered to vote in California.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com