Interim elections chief elects to go on vacation for three weeks

Much like a traditional absentee voter, Jim Buck is out of town for a big chunk of this election season.

But Buck isn't just a voter. He's King County's interim elections director, a fill-in hired to hold down the fort until a new, permanent director can be hired for the office that has seen more than its share of troubles.

Taking a three-week vacation during the busy run-up to a general election is unusual, but Buck's assistants said the absence wouldn't compromise their ability to do a top-notch job.

"I don't think we're in any danger here. We're running along as a well-oiled machine that we've been improving on," said Sherril Huff Menees, running the office while Buck is away.

Buck and his wife planned their European vacation months before he was named to run the Records, Elections and Licensing Services Division after the former director, Dean Logan, quit in July to take a job in Los Angeles. Buck has run the office during previous transition periods.

Buck will return to work Oct. 25.

Huff Menees, who has been assistant director for 21 months and previously was Kitsap County's elected auditor in charge of elections, said it would be unusual "in a normal circumstance" for the director to be gone for three weeks in the critical period when ballots and voters guides are being printed, absentee ballots mailed, voter-registration lists updated and returned ballots prepared for counting. This wasn't a normal circumstance, she said, because Buck had planned his vacation earlier and because he is a temporary manager.

"Would it be better if he were here?" said County Council Chairman Larry Phillips. "Sure," he said, but added that he had confidence in the elections office because it has successfully conducted several elections since the 2004 governor's election, when sloppy King County ballot-handling procedures provided fodder for a Republican Party challenge of Christine Gregoire's victory over Dino Rossi.

But Ellen Hansen, chairwoman of the council-appointed Citizens' Election Oversight Committee and a former King County elections manager, said she was concerned. "At a time like this, it's all hands on deck," she said. "When I took over the job as manager of records and elections, I inherited a policy of no vacations on the election side from after the Fourth of July till after the general election."

Leadership has been an issue since the nationally publicized problems in the 2004 election.

A County Council staff report in June said 10 of 50 staff positions were unfilled by permanent employees, including superintendent, vacant since June 2005. Now County Executive Ron Sims is looking for a director, a position he tried unsuccessfully to fill before the September primary.

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

Information in this story, originally published October 12 was corrected October 12. In an earlier version of this story, the first name of Sherril Huff Menees, King County's assistant elections director, was misspelled.