Thousands of lawyers are pouring into the state, deployed by the two campaigns and ready to pounce on any perceived irregularity.

They have already filed a dozen lawsuits as partisan claims of intimidation, illegal voting and missing ballots raised the specter of the 2000 debacle.

The controversy has caused renewed embarrassment to Florida at a time when it is in the national spotlight because of |he key role it is likely to play again in determining who will be the next US president.

"Florida is absolutely necessary to win the election," said former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who canvassed for Kerry in Miami over the weekend.

President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry have focused much of their energy on Florida in recent days, actively courting minorities and undecided voters.

With polls putting them in a deadlock, the candidates are going aftez every possible vote in the southeastern state where a 537-vote lead sent Bush to the White House and which has 27 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the pre{idency. The hea~iest campaigning has been targe|ed at central Florida, home to a large and politically flexible Hispanic community, and thought to have the state's largest number of undecided voters.

An influx of immigrants, many of them from Puezto Rico, has brought the state's Hispanic population to 3.2 million, and has weakened the impact of the 500,000 Cuban-American voters, a staunchly Republican bloc.

The Kerry campaign hopes that anger over recent travel restrictions to Cuba will win them some of the Cuban votes, though they are focusing more closely on other Hispanic groups.