As primary nears, county still without new elections director

As a half-million absentee ballots are mailed to King County voters this week, the elections department is still without a permanent leader.

The previous director, Dean Logan, quit in July. The other key leadership position in the department, the superintendent, has not been filled.

To deal with the vacancies, the county has patched together a temporary management team to fill in until a new director can be hired, and King County Executive Ron Sims expects to hire someone permanent by the Sept. 19 primary.

"It's going well," said Jim Buck, the interim director of the Records, Elections and Licensing Services Division. "What they've been through the last couple years has resulted in a really positive attitude of wanting to do well and knowing it's their responsibility to do well." Buck filled in as elections director during a vacancy in 2003.

But there are critics.

"The fact that they still do not have a permanent director should lead everyone to question what is happening," said Diane Tebelius, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.

After the 2004 election, the department faced intense scrutiny. The hotly contested governor's race resulted in a manual recount and a lawsuit. In the investigation that followed, the elections department discovered lost absentee ballots that were never counted.

Last year's election went smoothly, observers say. A Seattle consulting firm, Waldron & Co., is now working with the department on management training and cultural change.

In July, the department won a best-practice award for mail-ballot processing from the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks.

This summer, Logan's departure revived debate at the Metropolitan King County Council on creating an elected auditor's position to run elections instead of an appointed director. The council appears likely to postpone putting that issue before voters until 2009.

Sims says the debate over an elected auditor has made it difficult to hire a new director, even though he has narrowed his choice to one candidate, whose name he has not released.

Without a permanent director and superintendent, the council said the department cannot begin the conversion to all-mail voting, which Sims hopes to do by 2008. Most voters in the county already vote by mail with absentee ballots.

On Wednesday, the department began mailing absentee ballots to more than 569,000 voters. This is the third year voters will receive a pick-a-party primary ballot, in which voters first choose a party on the ballot before voting in the partisan races.

For those who don't vote absentee, 508 polling centers will be open for the primary. New voting equipment will allow voters who are blind or have disabilities to vote on a secret ballot. Previously, they had to be assisted. The elections department is having trouble hiring poll workers, and needs to fill 400 of the 4,500 jobs by the primary. Poll workers need extra training this year because of the new voting equipment.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published September 1, was later corrected to say that this is the third year voters will receive a pick-a-party primary ballot.