Elections Office audit gets county funding

The Metropolitan King County Council yesterday approved a $300,000-plus contract for a comprehensive audit of the county's Elections Office.

By a unanimous vote, the council authorized Chairman Larry Phillips to sign a contract with The Election Center, a nonprofit organization based in Houston. Details of the contract are being finalized.

Ernie Hawkins, chairman of The Election Center, promised "a very specific, very nuts-and-bolts" review of "everything from A to Z" in the county Elections Office. Hawkins will jointly manage the audit with David Howe, president of Issaquah-based management consultant Strategica.

The Election Center was the unanimous choice of a staff panel that reviewed proposals from four consultants who submitted proposals. The final audit report is due Oct. 1.

The audit will be the most detailed — but not the only — outside review of the Elections Office in the wake of problems in the November election. County Executive Ron Sims has appointed an Independent Task Force on Elections, and the County Council has revived its Citizens' Election Oversight Committee.

Seattle

Bus-tunnel closures will begin June 4

The downtown bus tunnel will close Saturdays starting June 4 so workers can begin readying it for joint use by buses and Sound Transit's light-rail trains.

The Saturday closure is just the first step. Starting Sept. 24, the tunnel will be shut for up to two years.

Sound Transit planner Mike Williams said the Saturday closures will allow workers to start removing rail tracks that were installed when the tunnel was built in the late 1980s but aren't compatible with Sound Transit's plans.

About one-sixth as many bus riders use the tunnel on Saturdays as on weekdays, said King County Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke.

Sound Transit, Metro, the city transportation department and Community Transit have scheduled an open house tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, 721 Pine St., to discuss the September tunnel closure and plans for dealing with the additional street traffic it will cause..

Salem, Ore.

Court won't hear Nader vote challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday announced it won't consider whether Oregon election officials wrongly kept Ralph Nader off the presidential ballot in November.

Without comment, the court declined to hear Nader supporters' appeal of an Oregon Supreme Court decision that denied the consumer activist a ballot spot because of flawed petition-signature sheets.

Nader turned to a statewide petition drive after failing at two mini-conventions in Portland to get the 1,000 voter signatures needed to qualify for the ballots as an independent candidate.

He needed 15,306 signatures to get on the ballot under the alternate method, and petitioners turned in more than 18,000 signatures.

But Secretary of State Bill Bradbury said after checking that Nader fell 218 signatures short of being on the ballot. Bradbury disqualified thousands of signatures for not conforming to technical rules, such as petition circulators not having properly signed each sheet.

Nader supporters accused Bradbury, a Democrat and backer of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, of using trivial concerns and applying unwritten rules to keep Nader off the ballot.

Sitka, Alaska

Calif. squid caught off the dock in Alaska

Fishermen here are using snagging hooks to try their luck on what many longtime harbor users say they've never seen before — people catching California market squid off the dock.

Contrary to what some harbor users have suggested, however, the squid are not new to the Sitka area, said fisheries biologist Eric Coonradt. But he's never heard of their being seen or caught in the harbor.

"It's definitely something unusual," he said.

A small group of anglers have been lining up each night along the main float of New Thomsen Harbor to scope out the tentacled creatures hovering about 15 feet below the surface of the water.

Last week, Coonradt used a squid jig to catch dozens of the white, 10-inch-long squid.

"They were a blast to catch," he said.

An indication of how unusual it is to find them in large quantities in Alaska waters is the fact that squid are not listed among species for which a sport or commercial license is required for harvest.

Times staff and news services