King County elections office: Are its problems solved?

The King County elections division faced harsh, prolonged criticism after the 2004 general election.

The closest election in state history had left the outcome of the governor's race in limbo for months. A lawsuit revealed the office had lost, and didn't count, hundreds of absentee ballots.

Through incompetence and apathy, critics charged, the county had squandered the public's trust in a fundamental democratic process.

On Tuesday, King County will hold its biggest election since 2004, roll out more than 500 new touch-screen voting machines and begin counting a projected 570,000 votes. Despite the leadership void created since elections director Dean Logan resigned in June, the office also has started planning for an ambitious transition to all-mail voting. Jim Buck, who has filled in several times before, is working as interim director.

Since 2004, three oversight groups have made recommendations to the office: King County Executive Ron Sims' blue-ribbon panel, called the King County Independent Task Force; an audit from the national nonprofit The Election Center, commissioned by the Metropolitan King County Council; and the council-appointed Citizens Election Oversight Committee.

Cheryl Scott, chair of Sims' task force, said at the group's last meeting in March that what the county has done is "not enough."

Her counterpart on the council's citizen-oversight committee, Ellen Hansen, said the elections office has "made great improvements."

Nick Handy, Washington state election director and a member of Sims' task force, described himself as "guardedly optimistic."

"We need two or three election cycles where the voters feel good about the election process," Handy said.

"There have been a lot of improvements made" in security and cleaning up the voter-registration database, said Buck, interim elections director.

The division recently won a national award for processing absentee ballots, Buck said. "The procedures were nailed down and followed, and we adopted an approach that not only guarantees but promotes that the mail ballot report will be accurate and factual, and not like it was in 2004."

Here is the progress made by King County on the three groups' key recommendations.

Recommendation: Improve the culture of the elections division.

Made by: King County Independent Task Force, Citizens Election Oversight Committee

Progress: During a trial on the contested 2004 election results, Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges described the internal culture as one of "taking our paycheck but not doing the work. It's not caring about either our fellow workers or the public we're supposed to serve. It's not taking responsibility. It's refusing to be held accountable."

Both oversight groups recommended hiring an outside management-consulting group to improve the workplace environment. Sims asked for funding, but after the 2005 election the council decided not to spend the money.

Sims' task force and the council's oversight committee say they're disappointed in the progress made on this front.

Nick Handy, however, says the office has changed.

"There's been a real culture change that you're going to do it right and you're going to take as much time as you need to do it," he said. "The people I talk to are positive, they're upbeat, they're very committed to improving elections."

Recommendation: Move to all-mail voting.

Made by: King County Independent Task Force, Citizens Election Oversight Committee

Progress: The county currently runs two voting systems: voting at the polls and absentee ballots. Sims plans to move to all-mail elections in 2007 or 2008.

The council has approved the change on the condition that Sims hires a new elections director and superintendent. Both positions are vacant right now, and Sims does not plan to restart headhunting (his first choice for the director's job turned it down) until after the general election. Observers hope the county switches to vote-by-mail in 2007 so it will run an election by mail before the 2008 presidential election.

Recommendation: Consolidate all election operations in a single building.

Made by: King County Independent Task Force, Citizens Election Oversight Committee, The Election Center

Progress: In 2004, the division gathered ballots in one facility and counted them in another, making security more complicated.

Both functions have been moved to the Temporary Elections Annex at Boeing Field, but the drop-off depot for ballots and memory cards and the voting-equipment warehouse are elsewhere.

Sims and the council intend to move all functions into one facility.

Sims suggested a building on Rainier Avenue, but the council turned it down. The council is now comparing the cost of constructing a new building in downtown Seattle with the cost of moving into an existing building and plans a decision in early 2007.

"That is our key recommendation and that's not done," said Ellen Hansen, chair of the citizen-oversight committee.

Recommendation: Improve security.

Made by: Citizens Election Oversight Committee, The Election Center

Progress: A consolidated facility would go a long way toward improving ballot security but more can be done, observers say.

Both the Citizens Election Oversight Committee and the County Council requested a plan to ensure election integrity several months ago and neither have received one. Recently the council said it wouldn't spend a $4.8 million federal grant on new voting equipment until the division files the security plan.

Election officials say they have many security procedures in place. To safeguard the ballots and equipment, they lock them in cages. Memory cards from polling machines are always accompanied by a poll worker and two judges from the two major political parties.

To protect the software from being hacked, the server, which is not networked, is kept in a locked cage, and the networks require entering dual passwords kept by different people.

Hansen says she wants to see a written plan, and there's still more the division can do, for example, like installing security cameras in election buildings.

Recommendation: Improve voter-registration database.

Made by: King County Independent Task Force, Citizens Election Oversight Committee

Progress: In the past two years, thousands of votes were challenged by the Republican Party claiming that felons had illegally voted, dead people cast votes and people illegally registered using addresses at rented mailboxes.

Since then, the felon voting law has been changed. Previously, felons who had served their time but not paid restitution were not allowed to vote; now anyone who has served their prison sentence can vote regardless of whether they owe fines.

After 2004, Secretary of State Sam Reed built a statewide voter-registration database that is regularly scrubbed for felons and people who have died. Observers say the state and county have made improvements, but keeping the database up to date requires constant review.

Recommendation: Instead of appointing a director of elections, elect an auditor.

Made by: Citizens Election Oversight Committee

Progress: The council originally proposed putting this issue, which requires voter approval, on the ballot in next week's election. It was postponed because Sims said he had a strong candidate who was considering taking the job here if it remained an appointed position.

Council postponed putting the issue to a popular vote until 2009, but the candidate turned down the job.

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