 July 25, 2006 King County receives top honors for excellence in mail ballot processingThe National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks will honor King County Elections with the Best Practice Award for mail ballot processing at its annual conference next week. "We are honored to be recognized by the national elections community for our efforts in implementing quality control standards in our mail ballot processing" said King County Executive Ron Sims. "This announcement positions us well as we transition to all mail voting in 2007." King County was selected by a three-member panel representing 250 professional court clerks, recorders, and election officials from across the country. The organization annually recognizes best practices in the field of elections achievements. "The King County Elections Office submitted an impressive examination of their mail balloting practices and the challenges election officials experience when conducting elections with an ever-increasing volume of mail balloting. Our members will be able to take the procedures outlined by King County and immediately put them to use in their own jurisdictions which is the whole purpose of NACRCs Best Practice program," said Harris County Clerk and NACRC Chair Beverly Kaufman. King County Elections was chosen for its significant efforts to improve ballot count accuracy and implement nationally recognized quality standards. The Mail Ballot Processing Unit began working toward Six Sigma goals in 2005 to benchmark against any discrepancies between the number of mail ballots received and the number of mail ballots tabulated. In simple terms, Six Sigma quality performance means no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Although most commonly used in manufacturing, many world class organizations like General Electric, Motorola, and Bank of America benchmark process performance using this standard. "The time has come when the same standards we use to track our money are used to track our ballots and I'm proud to say King County is well on its way to achieving that goal," said Sherril Huff Menees, assistant director of Records, Elections and Licensing Services. "Our new Six Sigma goals don't promise perfection, but use the common sense that successful, world-class private-sector businesses have been using to benchmark success." King County will receive the Best Practice Award at the 2006 NACRC annual conference on August 5 in Chicago, IL. King County Elections expects to process nearly 500,000 absentee ballot for more than 1 million voters in November -- more absentee ballots than any other county in the nation, second only to Los Angeles County, California. When King County transitions to vote by mail in 2007/08, it will become the largest jurisdiction in the nation to conduct all elections by mail. Related link:Mail Ballot Processing Accountability and Six Sigma Goals (PDF, 87KB) |
Updated: July 25, 2006
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