HARRISBURG -- The computerized UniLect voting system, under fire in Mercer County because some of the machines malfunctioned and wiped out votes in November, has been decertified by the state, meaning county election bureaus can no longer use it.

That means Mercer County, as well as Beaver and Greene counties, must scramble to find new voting systems before the May 17 primary, unless the makers of UniLect are able to regain certification.

Such a scenario is unlikely.

Once UniLect tweaks its software to fix the problems cited by the state, it would generally take at least a month to schedule a new certification hearing and another month for the state to issue a decision. So while it's possible that the UniLect system could be used again in Pennsylvania, "it's not likely that they could get it done before the primary," said Allison Hrestak, a Department of State spokeswoman.

The three counties will most likely dust off their old voting systems rather than investing in new ones, which means they'll use paper ballots. And that will be a major pain -- there's barely a month until the primary election, and collectively, the counties will have to print hundreds of thousands of paper ballots.

Each precinct has a different ballot, because this year's election is a local one -- school board members, constables and the like. And because it's a primary, separate GOP and Democratic ballots must be printed.

The decertification was the result of a Department of State hearing in February. Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon University computer expert, was hired to test the reliability of the touch-screen system. During the demonstration, the system froze up, unresponsive to the prodding of UniLect Corp. President Jack Gerber.

Gerber was traveling yesterday and could not be reached.

Shamos and State Department Secretary Pedro Cortez decided the system was neither "safely and efficiently usable in the conduct of elections" nor "capable of absolute accuracy."

Both are requirements of the state election code.

The February review arose out of an election investigation in Mercer County, where some of the machines malfunctioned because a computer code was installed incorrectly. The bad coding led to a presidential undervote of greater than 7 percent in November. A normal undervote, nationwide, is 1 percent to 3 percent. An undervote happens when an election produces more ballots than votes in a specific race.

The undervote, in turn, led to the resignation of James Bennington, Mercer's election and registration director. Among the three counties, there were 10,000 undervotes.

In Beaver County, one commissioner was fuming yesterday, but not at UniLect.

"This is a kick in the crotch from Harrisburg. You have no idea how complicated this will be," said county Commissioner Charles Camp, a Republican.

Beaver County has 116 voting precincts. The cost of printing the new ballots could be $500,000, Camp said, estimating on the fly.

"What is this, April 7? The election is a month away," he said.

State House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese, who lives in Greene County, called the decertification decision "a serious and crucial challenge" imposed on Greene County by state elections officials.

"Nonetheless, I have faith that our county commissioners will be able to realize a successful Election Day" on May 17, he said.

DeWeese added that he supports the state's decision to decertify the touch-screen system.

"The fundamental integrity of elections is too important to allow a voting system to endure when it can be compromised," he said.