The US election vote-count may be over, but the spotlight continues to fall harshly on Florida's Secretary of State Ms Katherine Harris, as the head of a commission looking into the November vote dismissed her testimony as "laughable."
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Katherine Harris' testimony was dismissed as 'laughable'
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Ms Mary Frances Berry, chairing the US Commission on Civil Rights yesterday, pressed Ms Harris to herself answer a question on whether the Florida electoral authorities had taken steps to explain to voters the ballot and voting machines they would be using.
Ms Harris, Florida's top electoral official, attempted to pass the question, as she had others, to the state's Director of Elections Clay Roberts, sitting alongside her. This brought a stern reprimand from Ms Berry.
"Harris' testimony was "laughable ... ha, ha, ha," a clearly irritated Ms Berry told reporters afterwards.
As the gaze of the public shifts to next week's inauguration of the new president in Washington, the electoral confusion seen in Florida last November continues to arouse strong feelings here.
Florida governor Mr Jeb Bush, brother of the president-elect, had already last year antagonized many minority voters with his abandoning of "affirmative action" policies which had aimed at diversifying hiring by the state.
Then the Florida vote, which proved crucial in the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Mr Al Gore, revealed a voting system riven with inadequacies.
Some black voters and members of other minority groups maintain that it was made particularly difficult for them to case their votes, or that their votes were discounted in disproportionately large numbers.
The US Commission on Civil Rights is an independent federal body which reports on its findings to the US Congress and the Senate. On Thursday, it began hearings in the state capital Tallahassee, investigating voter complaints about the election.
Also Thursday, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was among the groups announcing they had filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Florida alleging "institutional racism," for the alleged disenfranchisement of many of Florida's minority voters.
AFP