Over the past few days I snooped around among members of the New York Film Critics Circle, trying to size up how they'll decide things when they vote on awards today. It was clear that the best-picture race remained wide open, but that Forest Whitaker ("Last King of Scotland") and Helen Mirren ("The Queen") had strong leads in the races for best actor and actress.

But will voters change their minds now that we know who the Left Coasters picked? Frequently, the two groups like to chart separate courses. Last year, for example, they differed over best actor (Gothamites = Heath Ledger, Angelenos = Philip Seymour Hoffman) and actress (New Yorkers = Reese Witherspoon, Hollywooders = Vera Farmiga in "Down to the Bone"). They did agree on best picture: "Brokeback Mountain."

Much depends upon the order of category voting, which changes every year and is left to the discretion of the circle chair. This year it's the job of Marshall Fine of Star magazine, who tells Gold Derby that he hasn't made up his mind yet and will probably "freestyle it."

That's in contrast to many past chiefs who manipulated the process in order to try and affect its outcome. For example, when the circle chief wanted to stop an anticipated split in the directors' and best-pic races, he or she would have members vote on those two categories up front. When the director's race is decided first, followed by lots other award contests before the best-pic race, the outcome tends to split. If Fine is a fan of "The Departed," let's say, and believes that Marty Scorsese will probably win best director, he'd be wise to have director, then picture be the first categories to be decided.

The New Yorkers' voting process can get rather devious and nasty. Back in the ole days fist fights used to break out now and then and, in the 1950s, there was even, according to some accounts, an attempted murder. The incident occurred at a particularly stressful eight-hour voting session that climaxed at 4 a.m. when inebriated members suddenly took issue with the fact that there was still among them — during the height of the Cold War — a critic from the Communist Daily Worker who had been admitted during the 1930s when Marxism was chic. Lucky for the Marxist, his capitalist colleagues were so drunk that he was able to slip from their grasp while pinned against a wall. He fled, never to return.

In the 1970s, voting sessions were switched to daylight hours and liquor was banned, leading to far less hostile proceedings, but not necessarily civil ones. The voting process used by the circle often causes nasty clashes of award rivals being championed by opposing blocs that can only be resolved via odd compromises.

Example: in 1989, the circle chose "My Left Foot" as best picture when rival camps failed to prevail on behalf of "Do the Right Thing" and "Enemies, A Love Story. "Quiz Show" received no votes at all during the first voting round in 1994, but it won best picture after the two camps gave up their fights for "Forrest Gump" and "Pulp Fiction." The process is also blamed for one of the more eyebrow-raising choices the circle’s ever made: Cameron Diaz as Best Actress ("There Something About Mary") in 1998 when two camps couldn't decide between Fernanda Montenegro ("Central Station") and Renee Zellwegger ("One True Thing," "A Price Above Rubies"). The phenom is nothing new. In 1938, Post critic Archer Winsten wrote, "It often happens that you’re voting more against someone you don't want than for someone you do."

Here's how the voting process works: each critic lists one choice on their first ballot. If no pic or thesp receives a majority, a second ballot ensues calling for crix to list their top three choices ranked best (three points) to third favorite (one point). The candidate with the most points and "at least 50 percent of the potential first-place points" wins. (Huh?) Candidates are narrowed down to the top five vote-getters on the third ballot. If no winner emerges by the fourth ballot, then the two top vote-getters face off in a final, run-off polling. The winner's name must appear on at least half of the ballots, not necessarily in first place.

Photo: The practice of the New York Film Critics Circle settling on compromise choices is not new. "Wuthering Heights" won best picture of 1939 on the 14th ballot after a deadlock could not be resolved between "Gone with the Wind" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
(United Artists)