Barbs from bench for King County

If that wasn't a message Judge John Bridges sent to King County yesterday, it sure sounded like one.

The Chelan County Superior Court judge had barely begun issuing his decision in the election-contest trial when he said he would "decline the invitation" to send a message about election shortcomings that should be corrected.

Then he launched a zinger toward King County officials, who last week proposed a $22 million election center and asked the County Council for $650,000 to hire 14 more election workers.

"Clearly," Bridges said, "the evidence here suggests that the problems require more than just constructing new buildings and hiring more staff."

He went on to recall King County Elections Director Dean Logan's testimony about the need to improve the "culture" of the election office.

"Almost anyone who works in state and local government knows exactly what this culture is," Bridges said. "It's inertia. It's selfishness. It's 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.

"And so it is the voters who should send a message."

Logan and his boss, County Executive Ron Sims, said later they are working on the problems Bridges outlined.

"I hired Dean [Logan] to bring real solutions," Sims said. "We're going to implement the things we believe are necessary to reduce irregularities and to reduce any human error in our system. ...

"I don't think the judge said anything we disagree with, with regard to King County."

Logan, who was hired in September 2003, said he has already made changes to improve tracking of ballots and prevent counting of unverified provisional ballots — those cast by voters whose names don't appear on a precinct's voter rolls.

"Rest assured, we have learned from our mistakes and I remain committed to continuous improvement and meaningful reform," Logan said.

In his ruling yesterday, Bridges said the county's "significant errors" in handling provisional ballots, accounting for absentee ballots, preparing a misleading ballot report and using a new computer system didn't point to fraud. Nor did he see evidence that those mistakes changed the outcome of the election.

He blamed the problems on "a lack of communication, lack of taking responsibility for actions, a lower level of accountability and a difficulty documenting procedures."

When Bridges said voters should "send a message" about the flawed election, did he have Sims in mind?

Sims, who is running for re-election, said no. "The judge was not being that petty. Judges don't do that."

County Councilman David Irons, R-Sammamish, who is running against Sims for county executive, agreed the judge wasn't singling out Sims.

Irons said Sims' proposed increase in staffing merely reverses cutbacks he ordered in previous years. But Budget Director Bob Cowan said the election staff was reduced by less than one position in 2000 and has not been cut since.

As for the proposed elections facility, Irons said, "If Ron is building another Taj Mahal, as he likes to do, I'm going to have a major problem about supporting a waste of millions of taxpayers' dollars."

Seattle Times staff reporter Jim Brunner contributed to this story.

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