Analysis: Report on Florida election issued amid partisan bickering 

By GLEN JOHNSON, New York Times News Service 

WASHINGTON — The partisan bickering over the 2000 presidential election continued at Friday's meeting of the US Commission on Civil Rights, as it approved a report saying black voters in Florida were disproportionately disenfranchised over the pointed objection of its two Republican members. 

"This is part of an ongoing effort to undermine the legitimacy of the president of the United States," said Abigail Thernstrom, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education and one of the GOP appointees. "(The report) could have been written by Terry McAuliffe's office," she added, referring to the friend of former President Bill Clinton who now heads the Democratic National Committee. 

Russell G. Redenbaugh, who is a registered independent but identified himself as a Republican, labeled the report "bogus" and "fatally flawed." 

He added: "This report, having been handled the way it has been, leaked the way it has been, will cause the opponents of the report to be able to more easily reject it." 

Both concerns were dismissed by the commission's chairwoman, Mary Frances Berry, a registered independent who was appointed and reappointed as the panel's leader by Clinton. The commission approved the report by a 6-2 vote. All the other members are Democrats or independents appointed by Democrats. 

"I expect reasonable people who read the report to reasonably respond," said Berry. 

The report said that 54 percent of the votes rejected on Election Day in Florida were cast by blacks, although they make up just 11 percent of voters statewide. 

In an accompanying statistical analysis, a voting rights analyst said blacks most often fell victim to overvoting — inadvertently selecting more than one candidate. The analyst, American University historian Allan J. Lichtman, blamed the problem on confusing voter instructions, insufficient assistance in polling places, and antiquated technology in black voting precincts. 

The report also blamed inequities on the improper purging of voter rolls and inadequate access to voting booths. 

While the commission found no evidence of a conspiracy, it called for an investigation by the Department of Justice and the Florida attorney general. Commissioner Christopher Edley Jr., a Harvard Law School professor, said that since the problems had a disparate impact on blacks, the state may have violated the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. 

"The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic," the report said. "State officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement." 

The report singled out Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of President Bush, and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, like the Bushes a Republican. 

That criticism, and the simultaneous leak of the report Monday night to The Washington Post and The New York Times, fueled Republican charges of partisanship. "They got five news cycles instead of one," said Redenbaugh. 

Both Bush and Harris rejected the criticism, citing the enactment of a recent state law that will completely overhaul Florida's voting system before the next presidential election. 

In a statement released Thursday, Harris accused Berry of trying to use the investigation "to score political points, rather than to seek genuine solutions." 

Charles Canady, Bush's general counsel, said the report "grossly mischaracterizes the role of the governor and other state-level officials in overseeing the administration of elections in Florida." 

The election contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore turned out to be the closest in American history, with the outcome hinging on the tabulation of Florida's ballots. For 36 days, the nation awaited the result as both campaigns fought over whose votes should be counted and how. The issued was ultimately settled by the US Supreme Court, which halted any further recounts. 

The commission's report was based on six months' work that included three days of hearings, interviews with more than 100 witnesses, and the review of 118,000 pages. 

"Numerous witnesses gave heart-rending accounts of the frustrations they experienced at the polls in attempting to participate in the election," said the report's executive summary. "Potential voters confronted inept poll workers, antiquated machinery, inaccessible polling places, and other barriers to exercising their right to vote. Widespread voter disenfranchisement, and not the dead-heat contest, was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election."