In New Jersey, the acting governor's term is almost over, and now comes the week when two other acting governors succeed the acting governor before the governor-elect becomes governor.

That's four in eight days. ''New Jersey residents are going to need a scorecard,'' said State Senator Richard J. Codey, who will be the third acting governor of the week. ''Having our names on our backs might help.''

The week between the departure of Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco and the inauguration of James E. McGreevey, the governor-elect, is a historical accident, the result of a few quirks in the State Constitution and an even split in the Senate chosen in the November election.

Start with the resignation of Christie Whitman, the last elected governor, who left in February to become the administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Mrs. Whitman was succeeded, as the New Jersey Constitution provides, by the president of the Senate, at that point Mr. DiFrancesco.