In the wake of repeated errors with King County’s absentee ballots and ballot-counting in elections over the past three years, the Metropolitan King County Council will be asked to consider revising the oversight of the county Elections Office.

Councilmember David Irons today announced his introduction of a charter amendment to return the County Auditor to an elected position with responsibility for supervising and running elections. The elected auditor would be a non-partisan position serving a four-year term.

King County is the only one of Washington state’s 39 counties that runs its elections with an appointed official instead of an elected auditor. Currently, the King County Auditor also is an appointed position, but is responsible only for internal fiscal audits as a division of the King County Council. Elections are run by the director of the Records, Elections and Licensing Division of the Executive Services Department. The director is nominated by the county executive and confirmed by the Council. This arrangement has been in place since King County became a charter county in 1969.

“Public outcry about the on-going problems and numerous errors in the Elections Office demands that we revise the oversight of the elections process,” Irons said. “I believe the best way to restore public confidence in the elections process is to give the public direct control over electing the official who will be responsible for maintaining the integrity of our elections.”

The proposed charter amendment to make the change in the Auditor’s position currently is under review by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The Council will need to approve placing the charter amendment on the next general election ballot, in November 2005. If approved by voters, the charter amendment would require the election of a county auditor in November 2006.

“We’ve talked about this issue for years, and nothing has been done to remedy the problems we’ve encountered with operating elections,” Irons said. “The time has come to take action to revise and improve the way we do business, similar to the charter amendment that voters approved overwhelmingly a year ago to allow the county to do biennial budgeting.”