Task force says trust not yet restored in elections office

King County Executive Ron Sims and the Metropolitan King County Council have not done enough to restore the public's trust in the county elections office, a task force appointed by Sims said Thursday.

While giving the executive and elections team credit for making progress, the group again called on Sims and the council to fund an outside turnaround team to help the election department make cultural changes.

"I've been very impressed by the actions of the executive and director Dean Logan in implementing recommendations," said Cheryl Scott, task-force chair and former chief executive of Group Health. "My point of view as a private citizen is it's not enough. My point of view is that no stone should be left unturned."

The task force, which Sims recruited after mistakes in the 2004 election, is made up of elections directors from around the region, university presidents, law professors and other community members.

"Overall, their report was quite positive and confirms what other outside groups have said, which is there has been substantial progress in improving elections," said Sandeep Kaushik, a Sims spokesman. "Is there more work to do? Absolutely. There's no question about that."

In July, the group gave Sims a list of recommendations including: Hire a turnaround team to make changes to the King County Elections Office, move to an all-mail voting system, make the elections director an elected position instead of an appointed one, move up the primary date.

Since then, Sims has announced plans to switch the county to all-mail voting in 2007 and the Legislature is considering a bill to move the primary from September to August, starting in 2007. The task force also praised the county for conducting two elections without any major hitches.

Hiring a turnaround team, however, lost momentum after the council and the executive disagreed on how much it should cost. After a national search, Sims chose Waldron & Co., a Seattle consulting firm, to observe last November's election.

Sims requested a total of $1.35 million from the council to pay for the turnaround team, but the council delayed voting on the final $500,000 over concerns about cost.

The elections office "needs serious outside help," said John Lindback, the director of elections in Oregon, a member of the task force. "To have that come to a stop is like setting up this organization for potential failure. Why you would play with fire like that is beyond me."

Waldron filed an initial report in January, which Sims paid for out of existing county funds. That report described "battle fatigue" among elections workers and several vacancies in the department, including key management positions. The task force wants Waldron to play a major role in changing the organizational culture in the elections department, especially as it transitions to all-mail voting.

W.H. "Joe" Knight Jr., dean of the University of Washington law school, said, "Right now you have a lot of vacancies. If you're relying on those already involved, I'm not satisfied they have the leadership to change it."

Kaushik said Waldron is not completely out of the picture yet.

"We're talking to Waldron right now and we will send something over to council for them to take up that's defined a little better," he said.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com