Initiative would make King County elections director elected position

A citizens' group filed an initiative this morning to make the King County elections director an elected position in 2008, even though the Metropolitan King County Council already intends to put the issue to a vote in 2009.

Citizens for Accountable Elections will now wait for King County to authorize the initiative, Initiative 25, which will allow the group to collect the necessary 55,000 signatures to get on the November ballot. The petitioners will have 90 days to collect the signatures. If it gets on the ballot and voters choose to make the director an elected position, a new auditor would be elected in February .

King County now has an appointed elections director.

"Every county in Washington has an elected person that oversees all aspects of the voting experience, except King County," said Toby Nixon, a former Republican state legislator from Kirkland, who is leading the effort. "We'd like to change that."

The King County elections division has been plagued with problems stemming from the 2002 election, when absentee ballots were not sent out on time; and the razor-thin 2004 governor's election, in which the office lost, and didn't count, hundreds of absentee ballots.

Two task forces, one appointed by County Executive Ron Sims and another appointed by the County Council, recommended that voters elect the county elections chief.

The County Council debated putting the issue to a popular vote in November 2006, then postponed it until 2009, so an appointed director could see the department through a transition to all-mail voting.

Sims, who is expected to soon announced a replacement for elections director Dean Logan. Jim Buck has been filling in as interim director since Logan left in July .

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com