Two King County election-review panels are revving up this week, with back-to-back inaugural meetings.

The Independent Task Force on Elections, appointed by County Executive Ron Sims, held its first meeting yesterday.

Today the Citizens' Election Oversight Committee, reactivated by the Metropolitan King County Council, opens shop. The 13 panel members were appointed yesterday.

Sims' task force went to work one week before the scheduled trial of Republican Dino Rossi's challenge of Democrat Christine Gregoire's election as governor. Rossi alleges that illegal voting in King County helped put Gregoire over the top in a manual recount after Rossi had won two machine counts in the November election.

Cheryl Scott, chairwoman of Sims' Independent Task Force, said her panel will hunt for "root causes" of election problems, then make recommendations to restore public trust and turn King County into a national model for efficient elections. Scott is a former CEO of Group Health Cooperative.

Task-force members include two university presidents, a retired judge and the top election managers for Washington and Oregon. Such a group will not be stymied by bureaucratic interference or manipulated by partisan interests, Scott said.

"We have gotten every assurance of our independence in every way, shape and form, right down to the 'Independent' in our name," she told the task force.

The County Council yesterday appointed 13 members to the revived Citizens' Election Oversight Committee. The group was created in 2003 in response to delayed mailing of absentee ballots in 2002 and 2003.

Returning committee members are Peter Abbarno, of the state Republican Party; Susanna Chung, Organization of Chinese Americans; A.J. Culver, Municipal League; Randy Matheson, Renton School District; Sheryl Moss, Office of the Secretary of State; Michael Snyder, state Democratic Party; Joan Thomas, League of Women Voters; and Monica Tracey, county Republican Party.

New members are Chelan County Auditor Evelyn Arnold; John Davidson, Republican Party election observer; Paul Guppy, Washington Policy Center; former King County Elections Director Ellen Hansen; and Gurine Nordby, county Democratic Party.

The two election-review panels are in addition to a $350,000 audit, approved by the County Council in April, of the county agency that conducts elections. Yesterday, Republicans on the County Council said they will seek to broaden the scope of that audit to examine problems acknowledged by election officials in trial-related depositions.

The audit will be the most-detailed review of King County's election system.

Staff of the County Council and the county auditor's office are evaluating audit proposals from four potential contractors: MGT of America, The Election Center, Deloitte Consulting and Forefront Election Solutions.

County Council Chairman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, said the council will sign an audit contract within the next couple of weeks.

County Councilman David Irons, R-Sammamish, a candidate for county executive, said legal depositions of Elections Director Dean Logan and Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens were "revelations of ineptness ... that set the stage for individual acts of fraud."

Republicans said elections officials left the county vulnerable to fraud by failing to screen registering voters for prior felony convictions, losing track of ballots and falsifying a ballot report.

Phillips dismissed Republicans' complaints as "grandstanding to try to inappropriately influence the court case in Chelan County as opposed to really getting anything done of significance."

Staff reporter Jonathan Martin contributed to this report. Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105