Democrats and Republicans kept one eye on the ballot box and another on the courtroom yesterday as elections officials swam a tidal wave of last-minute calls from voters uncertain they were on the rolls.

"If we don't have a clear winner, this country's going to have a meltdown. This country's going to have a nervous breakdown. Me too," said Mark Wolosik, director of elections for Allegheny County, one of the potential Ground Zeroes for whatever electoral calamity might arrive today.

As Wolosik spoke, a pair of volunteers for two voter groups left his office, after arguing that 240 new voters were mysteriously missing from county registrations. In the background, almost every telephone at the elections office was ringing as staff members filed out after the workday.

"Should I answer these phones?" asked Diane Boscia, one of the office staff.

"No," Wolosik said, "cause you could be answering them all night."

The office was swamped. Almost every caller, said Boscia, had two questions: "Am I registered? Where do I vote?"

Not everyone was registered. JoAnne Chasnow, a volunteer with Project Vote, and Pat Clark, a lawyer representing another group, Everybody Votes, met with Wolosik and a county solicitor, trying to figure out what to do about 750 voters who claim to have registered but are not on the rolls.

"They're trying to determine why folks were not registered to vote. We're still working on it. They'll be voting provisionally," Chasnow said.

But, under the newly revised Pennsylvania voting code, if those voters cannot be found anywhere on the registry after election day, their ballots will be disqualified.

Vic Walczak, executive director of the Pittsburgh office of the American Civil Liberties Union said last night the county elections office might have failed to enter the voter registration forms to an updated computer list.

"They have copies of the registration forms but, for whatever reason, the folks are not on their registration rolls. The county has been very cooperative," Walczak said. "There's no allegation of any kind of fraud or misconduct. We think it's a result of errors or mistakes or being overwhelmed."

Walczak said he will go to court before Friday, when provisional ballots are counted, to have a judge direct the county to count the votes of those he believes have been left off the rolls mistakenly.

The Bush-Cheney Pennsylvania campaign has argued that at least 10,000 newly registered voters statewide are suspect. The campaign said it had sent out "welcome" letters to 130,000 newly registered voters signed up by pro-Democrat forces and that 10,000 were returned as undeliverable, raising suspicions of ghosts on the registration rolls.

In Lancaster County, Jim Burk, a semi-retired antiques auction promoter, said he received back-to-back phone calls from persons advising him that his voting registration was invalid and not to bother going to the polls today.

"They said 'Mr. Burk we're sorry to inform you your registration's not up to date. You won't be able to vote tomorrow.' I asked them who was calling, but they never answered. They hung up pretty quick."

Burk, a registered Republican, said the call was then followed by a third, a recorded message, warning him that, if reelected, President Bush would eliminate Social Security.

As the Republicans cried foul, liberal groups, including People for the American Way, the NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights held a press conference to accuse the Bush campaign of hijinks nationwide. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe visited Pittsburgh to accuse Republicans of a campaign that included lying to people about the date of Election Day.

"They were covert in 2000. They are overt in 2004," said McAuliffe during a morning press conference at Kerry headquarters in the Hill District.

He displayed a letter, purporting to be from officials in McCandless, advising voters that "due to the immense voter turnout that is expected" the election has been split over two days, with Republicans to vote Nov. 2, and Democrats voting Nov. 3. The letter was distributed at a North Hills Mall.

Yesterday, a Democratic volunteer in Beaver County reported getting inquiries from senior citizens who said they had been called at home and given the same advice.

"I personally have taken five calls," said Patty Gagliardi, a Beaver County Kerry worker, who said elderly voters called her office to ask if the Nov. 3 Election Day was real.

As Gagliardi fielded calls, officials with Common Cause issued an alert that ranked Pennsylvania third among states generating reports of voter problems to its 1-866-MY-VOTE1 line. Allegheny County was ranked second nationally among counties, with 2,040 of Pennsylvania's total of 5,409 reported problems. Broward County, Fla., was first, with 3,338 complaints, and Wayne County, Mich., was third, with 1,823.

Among the major complaints were voters who said their registrations were not recorded.