While Pennsylvania legislators passed an automatic recount law to help ensure an uncontestable election, detailed instructions have still not been given to election offices.

"At some point we will give some direction of what will happen if a recount takes place," Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Brian McDonald said. "The recount will involve nothing extremely painstaking, and we're more concerned with things leading up to the election."

The recount is patterned after voting changes made in Florida following the 2000 presidential election. If the outcome of the first election separates candidates by less than one-half of a percent of the total number of votes, a recount would take place.

"The 0.5 percent comes from legislation patterned after Florida," said Abe Amoros, spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell. "[Florida] came up with some sort of mathematical equation and Pennsylvania basically adopted it."

McDonald gave a hypothetical example of an election explaining that if 5 million Pennsylvania voters cast a ballot, to warrant a recount, there must be a less than 25,000 vote difference between two candidates. If a recount does occur it will be conducted not just by the counties, as in the regular recount, but members of the candidates' parties will be looking over the counters' shoulders. Party members will be taking into consideration how the votes are recorded and counted, he said.

If the recount results conflict with the original count, the results of the recount will stand. However, a losing candidate maintains the right to contest the recount in court. That decision is strictly up to the candidate, and the commonwealth will not be responsible for court costs, Amoros said.

Larry Frankel, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said he supports the automatic recount measure but is concerned about the other provisions passed with the bill.

"The automatic recount is worthy and should have been enacted years ago, but some aspects of the bill dim voters' ability to vote by changing rules about the provisional ballot and authorizing poll watchers to move from place to place on Election Day," he said.

A provisional ballot enables voters to vote with a valid form of identification if they show up to the wrong polling place or there is a mistake in the registry. A provision of the automatic recount law does not allow citizens in these situations the ability to vote.

"Sometimes people don't know where the polling place is and somehow end up in the wrong county," Frankel said. "The vote will not be counted, and prior to the bill, it didn't matter if you were in the wrong county or not."

Frankel said, for example, students on college campuses that cross county lines could end up at the wrong polling place.

"Although there may not be very many people affected, we don't understand why the legislature thought [the provision] was needed."

The other provision allows for candidates' poll watchers to move from polling place to polling place. Previously, candidates were permitted two poll watchers per site. The poll watchers were not allowed to switch polling places during Election Day.

"We fear within polling places, we'll have more polling officers in some places in some than others, causing confusion and disruption," Frankel said. "[Poll watchers] are committed to the candidate, and we've had instances where they have disrupted the voting process."