HARRISBURG -- Time is running out on Russ Diamond, an independent candidate for governor.

Tuesday is the deadline for Mr. Diamond and his supporters to collect at least 67,070 signatures to get on the November ballot.

But as of yesterday, he had only a little more than 26,000.

"It doesn't look promising," admitted Mr. Diamond, a Lebanon County businessman and political reform activist.

"I probably won't be on the ballot. I have no expectations [of doing so] at this point," even as petitions continue to trickle in through the mail from volunteers across the state.

Ever since the now-repealed General Assembly pay raise was passed last July, Mr. Diamond has actively campaigned for reforming state government.

Last July, he founded PACleanSweep, a statewide citizens group dedicated to ousting all incumbent legislators.

Mr. Diamond intended for his gubernatorial campaign to keep pushing for government reform, accountability and credibility. He also supported elimination of property taxes and the repeal of the 2004 slots law -- not because he is against slots but because he didn't like the way the law was passed.

Like the pay raise, the slots law was approved in July 2004 in the middle of the night with little legislative debate or public input.

Mr. Diamond said that gathering so many signatures -- 67,070 -- is "a huge hurdle" for any independent candidate to clear. Major party candidates, such as Democrats and Republicans, only need 2,000 signatures to run for governor.

Mr. Diamond thinks the ballot access law is part of the wrong-headed nature of state politics that he'd like to change.

According to a state law passed in the mid-1980s, third party and independent candidates for statewide office must gather a number of signatures equal to 2 percent of the total votes received by the highest vote-getter in the previous statewide election.

That vote-getter was state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr., who won the 2004 election with more than 3.3 million votes. Never before have Pennsylvania ballot hopefuls had to gather so many signatures.

"They make it so difficult to get on the ballot, it's mind-numbing," said Ken Krawchuk, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor in 2002 who now advises other candidates on how to petition for ballot access.

Besides gathering a lot of signatures, he said, minor candidates must be prepared to defend those signatures from challenges by the major parties. Republicans and Democrats scrutinize petitions closely to find signatures that don't qualify and prevent candidates from making the ballot, he said.

"Having challenged and been challenged in the past, I think that even if [Mr. Diamond] turned in 70,000 signatures, the chances of him withstanding challenges are still very, very low," Mr. Krawchuk said.

The state constitution "says all elections must be fair and equal," Mr. Krawchuk said. "But it's obvious that some political parties are more equal than others."

Richard Winger, editor of the online publication Ballot Access News, said that Pennsylvania ranks as one of the most restrictive states in the country in terms of ballot access.

He predicted that nonmajor parties -- both the Green and Constitution parties are trying to field gubernatorial candidates -- will not gather enough signatures. That would make Pennsylvania one of only two or three states in the country to have only the two major parties on its statewide ballot.

Mr. Diamond is still hoping to see a surge in last-minute signature gathering as Tuesday's deadline nears, but so far that hasn't happened.

"If a lot suddenly come in, I will be pleasantly surprised," he said. "If not, I will go back to throwing rocks from the side of the road" as an activist.

If nothing else, Mr. Diamond thinks his effort will help to educate many voters about the state's restrictive ballot access laws.

"What we did do is open a lot of people's eyes to how limited their options are," he said.

If he hadn't tried, he said, "People would have gone on thinking everything was fine and dandy."