Carter warns of repeat election 'fraud' in Florida

Mr Carter pinned much of the blame on the state's Republican governor, Jeb Bush, younger brother of President George W Bush. He wrote that Jeb Bush, "naturally a strong supporter of his brother, has taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future".

In 2000, Jeb Bush presided over an election system controlled by fiercely partisan Republican officials, Mr Carter wrote.

History was now repeating itself, he charged. In particular, Mr Carter denounced Mr Bush and aides for attempting, once again, to throw tens of thousands of black voters off the state's electoral roll, on the grounds that they were believed to be convicted criminals who had not yet regained their right to vote in clemency hearings.

In the 2000 election thousands of non-white voters were refused the right to vote because they were incorrectly included on a list of alleged felons, provided to election officials by the Republican state government.

This summer, Mr Bush's aides sent a similar list of alleged felons to local election officials. The list was once again found to contain thousands of incorrect names. It focused almost exclusively on black felons and ignored criminals from the Hispanic community, seen as more likely to vote Republican. The list was retracted.

Mr Carter described the latest row as "a fumbling attempt . . . to disqualify 22,000 African-American [likely Democrats], but only 61 Hispanics [likely Republicans], as alleged felons".

Mr Carter's words may anger as many Americans as they comfort, notably his incendiary comment that "basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida".

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