King County is the 11th largest county in the United States with nearly one million registered voters. The job of managing this tremendously complex registration and balloting operation is at present overseen by the county’s Records, Elections, and Licensing Services Division which handles Archiving of Records, Animal Services, Marriage Licensing, Taxicab Licensing, Vehicle/Vessel Licensing, and other duties.

Overseeing this large bureaucratic division, including the Elections Office, is a Director appointed by the King County Executive. The current Director is an Interim appointee because of the vacancy created when former Director Dean Logan left in the wake of his handling of the County’s election operations during the highly controversial 2004 gubernatorial election.

Following what some have called this ‘scandalous’ mismanagement of the voter registration and balloting process, County Executive Ron Sims called for one, then another, task force to independently study how King County might improve election management: Changing the appointed elections director to an elected office was a key recommendation of both commissions.

“The Task Force believes that an official elected in a non-partisan race with primary responsibility for conducting elections would increase accountability to citizens, be better able to encourage citizens to participate fully in the electoral process, to be a more effective advocate for improved technology and resources, and establish an independent election system.”

Election Task Force Report 2005
Policy Recommendation #2        

Subsequently the King County Council was poised to allow voters to decide whether to change the county charter to create an elected office for the Elections Director but the 5-member majority supporting the initiative waited as County Executive Sims announced he had recruited an appointee for the position. The candidate withdrew from consideration after the deadline for placing the charter change on the November ballot. The office remains under interim management.

Since then the King County Council has tentatively approved a non-binding 2009 ballot resolution to address the issue but have not reached consensus on many key details.

We are not holding our breath. We are moving forward.