Easy answers

After a tumultuous governor's race, some changes proposed for the King County elections system are so reasonable and obvious they should be approved immediately.

First, King County and other counties ought to re-tool provisional ballots so they cannot be fed into counting machines at polling places. Republicans are concerned that hundreds of provisional ballots mistakenly were fed into machines before signatures or eligibility could be verified. King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson offers several ideas that should fly through the council, including improved methods for handling provisional ballots, better training for election workers (and temporary workers) and locating all elections operations in one building. They currently are housed in three different locations.

Not all the proposals are good. One bad idea would make the elections director a directly elected nonpartisan auditor instead of an executive appointee.

Councilman Dave Irons believes such a step would end political cronyism, but this is no solution for election problems that surfaced in the governor's race.

Felons voted in King and Pierce counties, according to a Seattle Times investigation. King County's election director, Dean Logan, is appointed by County Executive Ron Sims; Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy is elected.

The manner in which the elections director lands the job would not clear felons from voting lists or prevent provisional ballots from being improperly fed into machines.

The more important goal is to have a qualified professional lead the office, and that person may not be a natural-born fund-raiser or campaigner. Politicizing the office is not the answer.

The closeness of Election 2004 has provided many after-the-fact lessons.

State lawmakers should move the primary back to June and require ballots be received, not just postmarked, by Election Day. King County should fix its process, especially by making provisional ballots distinct from other ballots so they cannot be put into machines before signatures and voter eligibility are verified.