King County officials have a tentative agreement to buy a Rainier Valley building and turn it into a modern, $22.8 million election center intended to help avoid a repeat of the problems that plagued the November election.

The facility would allow the county to combine under one roof election offices and now-cramped absentee-ballot operations.

Outside reviews of the Elections Section before the November vote called for consolidation, but it took the embarrassing failures of the 2004 election to make it a top priority of County Executive Ron Sims and the County Council.

Sims informed the council yesterday that the county has an option on a three-story building at 1130 Rainier Ave. S. and two adjacent properties just north of Interstate 90.

The deal is subject to the approval of the council, which in April asked Sims to come up with plans for consolidating election operations, improving staff training and evaluating funding requirements for running elections.

In a lawsuit, the state Republican Party has cited illegal voting, valid but uncounted ballots, and ballot-accounting problems in King County as reasons a judge should set aside Democrat Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory over Republican Dino Rossi in the governor's race. Gregoire won a hand recount after Rossi won two machine counts.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges is expected to rule Monday on the election lawsuit.

The election warehouse, where voting machines and other equipment are stored, would remain at its current location east of downtown Seattle. But the county would move its Information and Telecommunications Services data center — which serves all county departments — into the 1130 Rainier Building, already wired for high-tech uses. The county would close the facility on Fourth Avenue South where absentee ballots are counted and shift that work to the new building.

Sims proposes to buy the three properties for $15.3 million, and spend up to $7 million on improvements to turn the building into a state-of-the-art election center, where ballot verification and counting could be done more efficiently.

Before putting together the funding, however, Sims has asked the County Council for $677,000 to study the site in more detail and put down earnest money if it passes muster.

Sims also asked the council yesterday for $650,835 to hire 14 more full-time election workers and $535,000 for two independent-review commissions and an outside audit of the Elections Section.

The County Council has commissioned an audit of the Elections Section by the Houston-based Election Center and has revived a Citizens' Election Oversight Committee that studied problems in the 2002 general election. Sims has appointed a separate Independent Task Force on Elections which, under his funding request, would cost $135,000.

The new election staff would include two quality-control workers to better keep track of ballots, a technical-support manager and an assistant, a training coordinator, a Web master, a recruiter, a records coordinator and six administrative assistants.

Problems in the November election showed that more work should be put in the hands of permanent staff rather than temporary workers and that the Elections Section needs to improve its use of computer systems, Elections Director Dean Logan said yesterday.

"Now we need to step up to the plate and make sure we have the ability to address those issues," Logan said.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com