Elections chief Logan put on hot seat — by judge

WENATCHEE — If the Republicans' goal in the governor's-election lawsuit was to convince Judge John Bridges there were serious problems in King County's election division, they have made their case.

In some of his very few editorial comments in seven days of trial in Chelan County Superior Court, Bridges indicated yesterday that not only does he believe the problems are substantive, but he's frustrated that more hasn't already been done to fix them. What Bridges has not hinted at is whether those problems, as Republicans argue, warrant overturning the November election.

Democrats are expected to rest their case today and say they are confident their defense of the election will sway Bridges to reject the Republican claim. Closing arguments in the first-ever Washington trial on a contested governor's election could come as soon as this afternoon. The trial is scheduled to end tomorrow .

In a day dominated by King County Elections Director Dean Logan's lengthy testimony, it was a pause, a quick question and a bit of obvious exasperation from Bridges that captured the courtroom's attention.

Democrats called Logan, a career election official, to explain that errors that plagued King County happened elsewhere, too, and were not a sign of fraud or neglect.

That was the goal when Democratic Party attorney Kevin Hamilton asked Logan if it was possible to have a "completely error-free election."

Logan: "It's not something I've seen, and I don't think the system necessarily contemplates that. I think it recognizes that it is highly dependent on human interaction and anytime you have that ... there is going to be some margin of human errors."

When attorneys were done with their questions for Logan, the courtroom sat quietly for a long moment as Bridges appeared to be reading something.

He then read Logan a quote from the county's post-election report that said while problems had occurred in the election, they were addressed "without compromising the transparency and integrity of the election."

Bridges was clearly skeptical about the claim.

"I've read maybe a couple thousand pages of deposition testimony and have been here a week and a half, reading and listening to what many of the employees of your department have had to say, including Ms. Way, and I assume you are familiar with her testimony," Bridges said to Logan, referring to Nicole Way, the county's mail-ballot supervisor.

Way testified last week that she and her boss, Garth Fell, falsified a mail-ballot report when the numbers did not reconcile properly, and she wrote e-mails before the election saying the county's new computer system was not properly tracking absentee ballots.

Bridges told Logan that when he was in the Army, there was an expression about "taking names ... and kicking tush."

"Is there any sense of urgency in King County about fixing some of these problems?" Bridges asked.

"I can assure you there are steps being taken right now to address those issues," Logan replied.

Bridges doesn't often ask witnesses questions and even less often shows a point of view, as he did with Logan.

The lawsuit was filed in January by Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, party Chairman Chris Vance and other Rossi supporters. They allege that errors and fraud robbed Rossi of a victory over Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. Rossi won the initial count and a machine recount. Gregoire won a hand recount by 129 votes and was declared governor.

Yesterday, an expert witness the Democrats called to debunk the Republican theory of apportioning illegal votes said it's impossible to say which candidate really got the most legitimate votes.

Both sides allege more than a combined 1,000 illegal votes. Christopher Adolph, a University of Washington assistant professor of political science, said from the available data on illegal votes, "it is impossible" to say which candidate benefited.

Bridges has said Republicans have to show that Rossi would have won; it is not enough merely to say the true winner is unknown.

"That's not our burden," Democratic attorney David Burman said after court. "The winner has been certified."

Republicans took encouragement yesterday from Bridges' interaction with Logan.

"I think the judge has clearly gotten the picture that there are deep, serious problems in King County, and that those problems existed in the count for the November election," said Republican attorney Rob Maguire, who cross-examined Logan.

Hamilton, the Democratic Party attorney who questioned Logan, said it would be a mistake to read too much into one question from Bridges about problems in King County. "Obviously it's not a reason to overturn the election, and I think he knows that," Hamilton said. "But I think he wants to know that somebody is addressing the underlying issues."

During his questioning of Logan and later of Linda Sanchez, the county's elections-operations supervisor, Hamilton asked about the temporary and mostly elderly workers who run polling places. He got reassurances from officials that the workers do the best they can under trying conditions.

After court, Hamilton said Republicans are "just picking on a bunch of senior citizens who are the heartbeat of our democracy and run these polling places."

"You want to yell at [poll workers], fine. You can do that, but that's not a reason to overturn an election," Hamilton told reporters. "You want to find, after a 14-hour day, a 78-year-old retired Boeing mechanic making a math error? That's not why we overturn elections."

Hamilton asked Logan on the stand to respond to Bridges' question to Way last week about the new computer system that has received much attention in the trial.

Logan said the system was a top recommendation of independent panels that reviewed problems with King County's 2002 election, as well as an outside consultant and the Secretary of State's Office. He said that if the computer system had not been implemented in the months before the 2004 election, the situation would be worse than it is, and the focus today would be on people who never got absentee ballots "and never had an opportunity to vote."

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com