Judge John Bridges in Wenatchee today ruled with clarity and certainty on the winner of the November gubernatorial election. In doing so he also confirmed what most of us on the King County Council have learned in our hearings over the past several months on the operations of King County Elections.

Particularly in reference to King County, the judge found no fraud. No intentional misconduct. No partisan bias. Every such allegation raised in the Republican lawsuit has been rejected by the court. The lawsuit has been revealed to be little more than a smear campaign aimed at discrediting King County Elections, with the cynical partisan goal of undermining the County Executive.

The judge’s findings of fact and conclusions of law are clear. The people of the state of Washington deserve finality to this long-running dispute, and in that spirit I urge Mr. Rossi not to appeal. Such an appeal would hinder the work of King County Elections to move forward and institute those remedies that were urged by the judge and clearly expected by the people of the state and King County.

It is time now to move forward. Lawmakers in Olympia helped King County remedy our elections process this past session by allowing counties to switch to all-mail ballots. The Legislature must now take action on reimbursement to counties for the real costs of running state elections. It must also move the date of the primary to allow counties time to properly prepare ballots for the general election.

Problems with the workplace culture in King County Elections, cited by the judge, are the very problems identified by Dean Logan himself in his deposition to the court. By his own testimony, these are the systemic issues that Dean Logan has been working to resolve. The findings of fact and conclusions of law that are now a part of the court record will assist us as we develop the remedial measures the judge urged legislative bodies like ours to adopt. This Council has already taken substantive steps and we will move forward with others:

Comprehensive election reform

On April 4th, the Council passed a bipartisan motion calling for measures to improve King County’s elections procedures, including safeguards for tabulating votes and differentiating provisional ballots from regular ballots, consolidation of election facilities and operations, and increased funding for election worker training.

On June 2nd, King County Executive Ron Sims transmitted legislation to the council that would appropriate funding to put many of these reforms into place.

Independent audit

On April 18th, the Council voted to hire an independent consulting firm to conduct a thorough management audit of the King County Elections Division. This audit will give voters the chance to have their questions about the election system answered by an expert with no stake in the outcome of the contested governor’s race.

On May 23rd, the Council voted unanimously to hire the combined team of The Election Center and Strategica, Inc. to conduct the audit.

Reactivating the King County Citizens’ Elections Oversight Committee

On April 25th, the council voted unanimously to reactivate the King County Citizens’ Elections Oversight Committee, and on May 16th the council unanimously approved the nominees.

In 2004, the committee produced a report containing over 100 recommendations to improve elections, many of which have already been implemented. We look forward to their next report in later this month.