Howard Opinsky, Mr. McCain's campaign spokesman, called on state Republicans and the Bush campaign to end the ballot fight.

Mr. Zaremberg's group has taken sides in several of the ballot fights.

The post-election ballot fight could be so fierce, as they used to say of campus politics, because it seemed to matter so little.

Zenia Mucha, the governor's communications director and chief political adviser, argued that there would be no anti-Bush, pro-McCain backlash from the ballot fight.

As such, they say, the ballot fight is less about increasing public safety than it is about getting a cougar-skin rug for the wall.

But the publicity surrounding the ballot fight and the judge's ruling and repeated criticism suggest that the Republicans may be ready to overhaul a system that has long given the party favorite many advantages.

And the ballot fight alienated a lot of people.

It is the most lopsided of lopsided ballot fights, this battle over Question 5 in Massachusetts, and getting more interesting to watch.

In another ballot fight, a state judge yesterday disqualified the entire slate of delegates pledged to Donald J. Trump in the Reform Party presidential primary in New York.

In a famous case in the mid-1980s, labor unions won a key ballot fight by resisting all invitations to advertise on television or to debate the question in public.