A statewide recount to determine the winner of the fourth seat on the Pennsylvania Superior Court will begin on Wednesday and must be completed a week later.

Required by a 2004 law that calls for a recount in the event that a losing candidate is within one-half of 1 percent of the winner's vote totals, the action is expected to cost more than $1 million.

The cost will be borne by the government.

There was a chance that the recount could be waived if all of the trailing candidates agreed in writing to opt out.

Two of those, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Robert J. Colville and Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Kevin F. McCarthy, submitted letters earlier this week.

But Mt. Lebanon attorney Templeton Smith, who on Thursday asked for an extended deadline to make a decision, did not submit such a letter. He could not be reached yesterday.

Allegheny County Democratic Chairman Jim Burn called the recount "an embarrassment."

"Temp Smith should be ashamed of himself for wanting to pursue this," Mr. Burn said. "This is nothing more than a narcissistic crusade which will prove that he still lost on the taxpayers' dime."

Allegheny County Republican Committee Chairman Jim Roddey said that Mr. Smith should not be blamed for the recount because it is required by state law.

"No one should be disenfranchised, and the will of the people should dictate elections and not the will of public officials or alleged budget constraints," Mr. Roddey said. "The integrity of the entire democratic system relies on a fair and accurate vote and not a ballot that's 'close enough!' "

Mr. Roddey said that there are examples of elections being overturned by more than 5,000 votes, but he could not cite any particular race.

In this case, Judge Colville trails the leading candidate, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Anne E. Lazarus, by 2,258 votes. Mr. Smith is behind Judge Lazarus by 3,534.

Mr. McCarthy trails by 12,682.

Judge Colville would not comment on Mr. Smith's decision to go forward with the recount.

"The decision I made, I made for myself -- what I thought was appropriate for me," he said. "We all had to make an individual assessment of what we needed to do."

According to Pedro Cortes, the secretary of the commonwealth, there are only 267 outstanding ballots that have not yet been counted.

"You have to gauge what is the value of a fair and correct election," Mr. Roddey said. "We should do it right."

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