HARRISBURG -- The countdown to election day next month has officially begun for a ballot that could fundamentally alter the current narrow Republican tilt of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Yesterday was the deadline for Keystone State voters to register for the statewide general election to be held Nov. 3, AP reported. Voters will decide on three of the Supreme Court's seven bench spots and will also elect judges to the Superior, Common Pleas and Municipal Courts.

But all eyes this year are on the Supreme Court ballot, where voters will decide whether to retain incumbent Republican Thomas G. Saylor for a second 10-year term. The Supreme Court currently favors Republicans 4-3, although both a Republican and a Democrat open seat are up for grabs next month as well as Saylor's retention.

That means the court could either remain Republican or return to the Democrats following the ballot. Plus the electorate is more focused on this year's SC election than usual following a dispute over judges voting themselves raises that led to calls to vote out all incumbents, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported recently.

That led to the removal in elections two years ago of incumbent Supreme Court Justice Russell M. Nigro and more than a dozen lawmakers.

Four candidates - two endorsed by each party - will be vying for those two open spots on the SC bench. Best-known among football fans is Philadelphia Democrat and Superior Court Judge Seamus P. McCaffery, who in 1998 launched an impromptu courtroom inside Veterans Stadium during Philadelphia Eagles home games to try rowdy fans.

Fellow-Democrat and Superior Court judge Debra M. Todd of Butler County defeated McCaffery in the party primary earlier in the year. The pair face Republican Superior Court Judge Maureen Lally-Green, also of Butler County, and Environmental Hearing Board Chief Judge Mike Krancer of Montgomery County in next month's ballot.

Although well-known in Pennsylvania as the Eagles Court judge, McCaffery told the Inquirier he fears a backlash against candidates from Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania. That would benefit both Democrat Todd and Republican Lally-Green, both from the western region of the state.

Complicating the scenario even further, Republican Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy will retire at the end of this year. Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell will appoint his interim replacement, who will serve until 2009.