Metropolitan Councilmember Steve Hammond today delivered a letter (pdf file) to Dean Logan, Director of King County Records and Elections, requesting that he step down from his position in the wake of revelations that his office failed to count 93 absentee ballots in their possession during the November election.

“Friday's revelation that absentee ballots in the possession of King County Records and Elections were not properly removed from their envelopes and counted on Election Day is simply the latest in a series of errors and poor decisions that have reduced voter confidence in King County government to zero. It is in King County's best interest to use this summer to search for a director with prior experience operating elections in a large county as we prepare to head into November's election.

“It is evident that errors occurring in King County were exacerbated by poor decisions made by Director Logan. In the week prior to certification Logan should have been preparing a discrepancy report, as his predecessors routinely did, that would have drawn attention to problems discovered since certification. Instead, Director Logan used his discretion to allow political parties to search for new signatures to cure ballot signatures that did not match signatures on file with the county. This process, which allowed parties to approach voters independently and select those which would have their ballots "cured", was not explicitly provided for in statute or state rule and was rejected as unsound by most county auditors. The Secretary of State's office has since decried the practice and made a more specific rejection of it a legislative priority. But it was in the accommodation of this practice that Logan devoted the resources of his office in the week prior to certification. And, as a result hundreds of questionable ballots were added to those counted on Election Day.

“Had Logan used the week before certification preparing a discrepancy report, as past administrators demanded, he would have been alerted in time to the discrepancies and could have initiated a systematic review of places where ballots were later discovered.”

Read the full letter [pdf, 53K]