The 2002 elections were a disappointment overall, but we certainly should have enough ammunition in 2004 leaving the Republicans to dig their own hole without blaming the Democrats now. Two years will go by fast. Bush's campaign team who got the unelectable elected in 2000, worked its magic again in 2002 duping the American people. I don't see how they can continue duping everyone another two years, so I am very hopeful for 2004.  The Green Party is also an encouraging phenomenon. The Green Gubernatorial candidate in Maine got about 10% of the vote, and one Green candidate actually did get elected to the Maine State House.

The Post said the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights criticized top state officials -- particularly Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- for allowing disparate treatment of voters.

It said the commission -- composed of four Democrats, three independents and one Republican -- planned to ask the U.S. Justice Department and the Florida attorney general's office to investigate whether federal or state civil rights laws were violated.

Unequal access to modern voting equipment and "overzealous efforts" to purge state voter lists most harshly affected black voters in the state that decided the November election for President Bush, the Post said, quoting the 167-page final draft report.

"The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic. State officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement," the Post quoted the report as saying.  "Despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement and not the dead-heat contest that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election," it said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Bush, the younger brother of the president, took issue with the report, noting that its preliminary report several months ago had failed to find "any evidence of intentional discrimination," the Post said.

"Since that report, the governor has signed into law one of the most progressive election reform bills in the nation. We will have no further comment until our office receives a copy of the final report," it quoted Katie Baur as saying.

The Florida attorney general's office is investigating "possible civil rights violations stemming from the election," spokesman Joe Bizzaro said yesterday. "We're going to give due consideration to whatever is requested by the commission."

A bipartisan task force appointed by Gov. Bush concluded the November election was marred by systemic inconsistencies, citing unreliable voting machines, improper counting of absentee ballots and inaccurate databases.

The commission's report is the broadest, and most narrowly focused on minorities, to date. The panel held three days of hearings, interviewed 100 witnesses and reviewed 118,000 documents.

Among the key findings:

-- African Americans were nearly 10 times as likely as whites to have their ballots rejected.
-- Some Hispanic and Haitian voters were not provided ballots in their native languages, and physical barriers sometimes kept disabled voters from entering polling sites.
-- The Florida Division of Elections failed to educate Florida's residents on the mechanics of voting.