Not another campaign

It's a good thing the Metropolitan King County Council is still pondering ways to rebuild public confidence in the elections office. But the council should not waste time making the elections director a publicly elected position.

Such an unnecessary move would overpoliticize the office and delay progress. Republican council members Jane Hague and Reagan Dunn propose a charter change to make the elections director a directly elected auditor, a change that would add years of uncertainty to the office. Anyone appointed now would have to have to stand for election in a year or so.

Accountability is one of the chief arguments for altering the current status of the elections director. But the director already is accountable to an elected official, the county executive. The most striking need now is for stability and professionalism.

Elections director Dean Logan, hounded out of office, is leaving for a top elections job in Los Angeles. His position must be filled.

The position of superintendent, second in command at elections, has not been filled for a year. Few candidates have emerged amid so much anger and controversy at the office. There is considerable pressure to switch to all-mail elections very soon.

With all that, the office most needs a competent professional to provide consistency and leadership.

If the director's status is changed to an elected post, the new leader would arrive with limited authority and the distraction of a looming election.

County Executive Ron Sims is seeking a solid professional in the top spot to continue important improvements. That is not to say Sims himself has not hired underwhelming appointees in the past, because he has.

Both elected and appointed elections directors can be hacks. Logan, as we have stated before, was a competent professional who came from a previous job as elections director in the secretary of state's office.

Many elections officials believe appointing an elections director provides greater probability of landing a professional. Let's err on the side of that probability and forget the charter change.