Absentee-ballot manager blamed in report for flawed vote counting

King County Elections Director Dean Logan intends to fire the employee who falsified a ballot report after last year's general election.

An independent, investigative report released yesterday placed much of the blame for lost and mishandled ballots in the 2004 election on absentee-ballot supervisor Nicole Way.

The local law firm that did the report said Way ignored her boss's instructions, "constructed" an explanation for not counting more than 100 legitimate votes, and acted nonchalant when ballots were missing.

The $55,800 Williams, Kastner & Gibbs report said Way repeatedly "either failed to appreciate the gravity of the problem, failed to appreciate the implications of her actions or inactions and/or failed to have sufficient foresight to anticipate and avoid problems."

Way did not respond to messages left on her home phone and cellphone yesterday.

King County Elections director Dean Logan told her in a Friday letter that he is "proposing" she be fired. Her employment is still subject to a meeting this week with Logan.

Way, who was a key witness for Republicans in the challenge to the governor's election, has been on paid administrative leave since April.

Logan also reprimanded four other elections employees and told Way's boss, Garth Fell, that he faces a two-week suspension if he fails to meet certain goals. Logan, whose performance also has been questioned since the election, was not the focus of the report.

The continued fallout from the November election comes in the runup to the Sept. 20 primary, as King County Elections is struggling to regain the public's trust.

The county ordered the investigation this spring after valid absentee ballots from the November election were found uncounted, and some ballots were mishandled in an April special election.

Logan said in a statement that the attorneys' report showed "there was no attempt to sabotage" the two elections. He said it did show that his staff was overwhelmed and under intense scrutiny.

Former Superintendent of Elections Bill Huennekens was reprimanded as a result of the investigation, but in many ways the report exonerated him. Huennekens was demoted in June because of his role in the flawed election.

In her testimony in the governor's election trial this spring, Way said two of her bosses, Huennekens and Fell, were in on a decision to falsify the report.

But the investigative report said that while both Fell and Way told Huennekens how they planned to reconcile the ballot report, "it is likely that Mr. Huennekens did not fully grasp the information."

In a letter to Huennekens, Logan wrote that the investigators' report "reiterated" the concerns Logan had when he demoted Huennekens — concerns about his ability to manage people, foresee problems and communicate.

In addition, three women who worked on Way's staff were reprimanded as a result of the report. They had been assigned to jobs outside of the county's absentee-ballot operation last spring.

Besides detailing the circumstances surrounding some of the election's biggest fumbles, investigators wrote that employee interviews they conducted "revealed that there was some generally held belief among some staff in Elections Section that it was not fatal or crucial if the vote count was not completely accurate."

Elections workers dismissed inaccuracies in their rush to process ballots and count votes, the report said, assuming there would be a chance to fix problems later.

Logan said in his statement that he is concerned about the cultural problems revealed by the report: The staff didn't have faith in the system, failed to raise concerns and, in some cases, didn't follow procedures.

In a memo to his staff yesterday, Logan said it was critical for them to "take the time to do accurate work."

He urged them to focus on the upcoming primary even though the release of the report could be distracting.

Logan's spokeswoman, Bobbie Egan, said staff members are too busy to be distracted.

"These distractions — while they are a distraction — haven't gotten in the way," she said. "We don't have time to let them get in the way, quite frankly."

County Executive Ron Sims said through a spokesman that he didn't think there was anything new in the report.

"It affirmed his belief that there were a variety of mistakes made and they have to be corrected," said the spokesman, Sandeep Kaushik.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246