The U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue Pennsylvania and Westmoreland County if they don't move quickly to comply with the Help America Vote Act, a federal law that requires local governments nationwide to install new voting machines this year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Wan J. Kim wrote state and county officials Wednesday, setting the end of next week as a deadline to reach an agreement and avoid a lawsuit. The state could forfeit as much as $23 million in federal aid if it doesn't act, the letter said.

But officials here are stuck.

A group of voting rights activists in Westmoreland County last week persuaded Commonwealth Court to block the county from moving ahead, citing a provision in the state constitution that requires a referendum on the purchase of new voting machines.

The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. Pennsylvania's Department of State, also a party in the lawsuit, and Charles A. Pascal Jr., a lawyer for the activists, submitted briefs on Wednesday.

State officials say that compliance with the federal law takes precedence over the need for a referendum, a position echoed by Mr. Kim's letter.

"I think, at this point, we're going to wait to see what the outcome is at the Supreme Court," said Allison Hrestak, a spokeswoman for the Department of State.

The court's ruling could affect two dozen Pennsylvania counties, including Allegheny County, that use aging lever machines.

Commissioners in Westmoreland County, which has used lever machines for decades, had planned to buy more than 700 touch-screen machines from Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software Inc. for $2 million.

Solicitor Mark Gesalman said Westmoreland County officials have had "cordial" discussions with a lawyer from the Justice Department. Mr. Gesalman hopes the federal government will agree to wait for a ruling from the state Supreme Court before filing a lawsuit.

"Certainly the county has been making every effort to move forward," he said.

Eric Holland, a spokesman for the Justice Department, declined to comment on the possibility of legal action against Pennsylvania.

"We're evaluating the situation for each individual state," he said.

"At the conclusion of those evaluations, we'll determine what action, if any, should be taken."

Among other things, the new federal law, which was passed in the wake of the uproar surrounding the Florida vote count 2000, requires that all voting systems be accessible to handicapped voters.

As of Jan. 1, more than a third of states had failed to select machines that meet the law's accessibility requirements, according to a report released last week by electionline.org, a nonpartisan group in Washington, D.C.

The federal government also has threatened to sue New York state, where officials have not yet developed guidelines for purchasing voting machines.

To avoid a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, the Justice Department has suggested implementation of a consent decree that would lay out strict deadlines for acquiring new voting technology and require state officials to report weekly to the federal government.

Under the decree, all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties would have to tell the Department of State what machines they've selected by March 6. The state would pick machines for counties that failed to act.

On Wednesday, state attorneys submitted the Justice Department's letter to the state Supreme Court, asking the court "to give the correspondence such consideration and weight as it should deem appropriate."

Mr. Pascal, the attorney for the voting activists, filed a response yesterday, arguing that the letter isn't necessarily relevant to the issues involved with his clients' lawsuit.