Huff will keep elections-director job

King County Elections Director Sherril Huff won a decisive victory over five challengers Tuesday night in the county's first vote to choose an elections administrator.

Huff held more than a 2-to-1 lead over her second-place competitor, former Metropolitan King County Councilmember David Irons.

Tuesday's vote count — which may represent more than half of all the votes that will be counted over the next two weeks — gave Huff more votes than the combined total for Irons and the third-place contender, state Sen. Pam Roach.

Three other candidates, former banking-industry manager Bill Anderson, high-school teacher Christopher Clifford and former county Elections Superintendent Julie Kempf, trailed far behind.

Huff said the six-way race was difficult to predict, but she was surprised by the size of her lead — 44 percent of the vote. "I'm of course feeling great. I'm just delighted," she said.

She attributed her victory to experience and incumbency. Many voters weren't familiar with her name, Huff said, but when campaign volunteers told them about her, "they felt comfortable with the experience."

Irons acknowledged "the results definitely lean in her direction," but said he would wait for more results today or tomorrow before concluding whether he could catch Huff.

Roach, 60, blamed Huff's win on the county Republican Party's backing of Irons — "a spoiler" — after she filed as a candidate. "It's almost like they have a death wish," she said.

Huff said anyone who thought political parties would stay out of the nonpartisan race were making "a naive assumption." Huff was backed by the Democratic Party, whose state central committee gave her $30,000 last week.

Election officials, who had been predicting a turnout of only 25 to 31 percent in King County's first countywide vote-by-mail election, said Tuesday night the lower figure was more likely.

The special election, held without a primary, was scheduled after voters decided in November to choose the elections director who, until now, was appointed by the county executive. King County is joining Washington's 38 other counties in electing the person who runs elections.

The job will pay $146,000 a year.

During the campaign, Huff, 63, told voters she had turned around a problem-plagued elections office and conducted 21 successful elections since she was hired as assistant director in 2005 and promoted to director in 2007.

Huff, a former Kitsap County auditor and Bremerton City Council member, made a last-minute decision to move from Kitsap County to King County in order to run.

Clifford filed complaints in court and with the County Canvassing Board, claiming Huff wasn't a King County resident when she registered as a voter and filed as a candidate. The Canvassing Board dismissed the registration complaint, but a court hearing on her candidacy has not been held.

Irons, 56, touted his experience as chairman and CEO of a telecommunications firm, County Council member and Canvassing Board member. In 2005, he lost a bid to unseat Democratic County Executive Ron Sims.

Huff opposed making elections director an elected position. Irons favored electing the director, particularly after King County's problems with the handling and counting of ballots in the 2004 governor's race fueled a Republican challenge of Chris Gregoire's victory over Dino Rossi.

Kempf was fired as elections superintendent for allegedly lying about why ballots were mailed late in the November 2002 election — a charge she denied. The Seattle Times reported during the campaign on a lengthy criminal investigation into suspicions that Kempf created fake e-mails to exonerate herself and blame others. No charges were filed.

Irons was his campaign's biggest donor, contributing or lending $143,460 of his own money. His campaign has reported total receipts of $156,006, including $1,500 he gave back to a local Republican Party organization.

Roach was helped by $26,500 in independent expenditures passed from the Building Industry Association of Washington through the Senate Republican Caucus to a new political committee.

The other three candidates didn't report raising any money.

The better-funded candidates said it was difficult to raise money in a special election held during a deepening recession on the heels of a presidential election.

The special election is expected to cost about $3 million.

Enumclaw, Fall City

Two other races were held.

In Enumclaw, voters were giving a modest margin of support to a four-year school levy to pay for technology in classrooms and building improvements at Enumclaw Middle School, Westwood Elementary and Enumclaw High School.

In Fall City, voters were approving a proposal to create a new park district. District operations would be funded by a property-tax increase of 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Staff reporter Nicole Tsong contributed to this report. Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com