King County election workers' discovery that 18 ballots weren't counted in the September primary has set back efforts to restore confidence in the election process and could hurt County Executive Ron Sims in his re-election bid.

That's what some political observers were saying yesterday, just two days after auditors found security problems but said officials had significantly improved the election office.

Election workers Tuesday found 16 ballots that had been left in a box and weren't counted before election results were certified last Friday. The county canvassing board had ordered that the ballots be counted that day.

Workers also found two absentee ballots that weren't counted because voters mailed them in the wrong kind of envelope, so election workers didn't realize they contained completed ballots.

The county canvassing board late Tuesday told staff to count all 18 ballots in a recount of the sheriff's race. The ballots were not counted in other races.

"I can't believe it," County Councilman David Irons, R-Sammamish, said yesterday. "They are still losing ballots inside the election office — that's the bottom line."

In the 2004 governor's election, valid ballots were left uncounted, illegal ballots were counted and workers couldn't fully account for all ballots.

Irons, who is running against Sims for county executive, said Elections Director Dean Logan should be fired and responsibility for future elections handed to an elected auditor.

Sandeep Kaushik, a spokesman for Sims, put a more positive face on the recent foul-up. "Every indication is that we are light years ahead of where we were a year ago in terms of the performance of our elections department," he said. "A mistake was made, but the larger point is it was caught quickly and rectified quickly. ... "

A.J. Culver, chairman of the County Council-appointed Citizens' Election Oversight Committee, said Logan and his staff have made "tremendous improvements" since 2004.

But Culver said this week's discovery of uncounted ballots will hamper efforts to restore public confidence in elections and may have implications for the executive race: "If it's on your watch and bad things are happening, it's not good."

County Council Vice Chairman Pete von Reichbauer said it was unacceptable that County Council members learned of the uncounted ballots from news stories rather than from Sims or Logan.

"I hope we don't get to the stage where we have to bring in outside observers to our election like a Third World Country," von Reichbauer said.

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