Two reviews initiated by the King County Council to restore and maintain public confidence in King County elections today praised improvements that have been made to the Elections Section in the past year and outlined areas in which the Council should focus for further progress.

In briefing the Council’s Committee of the Whole, the chair of the Citizens’ Election Oversight Committee (CEOC), A.J. Culver, said “You’ve really stepped up to it in every way from Sunday. Using both citizens and professionals, I think you’ve done a massive job.”

The Council was also briefed today by The Election Center on its extensive observation of the 2005 General Election and the progress King County Elections has made to respond to the Center’s audit recommendations from last October.

“King County Elections has made tremendous strides in a very short period of time,” said Council Chair Larry Phillips. “We’ve seen the result of that hard work during the last three election cycles. Are we finished? No, but the staff and management of the Elections Section continues to be proactive in repairing the election system.”

“The CEOC is the barometer by which we gauge the public’s confidence in elections,” said Councilmember Jane Hague, Vice Chair of Council Affairs, and prime sponsor of the ordinance that reactivated the CEOC. “The past year’s work by the CEOC combined with its previous work in 2003-2004 represents 2.5 years of in-depth analysis of elections at a minimal cost to taxpayers.”

“There is an unfortunate belief in the newspaper editorial pages that the Council has been ‘dragging its feet’ when it comes to election reform,” said Councilmember Julia Patterson. “Today's briefing provides the public with a complete picture of the progress King County has taken to improve the management and operations of elections. Many improvements have been made and we know more work remains. We have moved swiftly, but with caution in implementing complex and often expensive reforms. We must look out for voters' wallets as well as their ballots.”

The Council created the CEOC to review the 2004 general election, monitor elections in 2005, and make recommendations for improvements. In its report to the Council, the 13-member panel today made six “high priority” recommendations:

Consolidate Facilities: “Security, management, communications and control, fewer opportunities for human error, employee morale and motivation, costs, and the ability to train and manage a large seasonal workforce in a favorable environment are some of the most important reasons to establish this facility.”

Move to All-Mail Elections: “Running two separate elections processes (poll voting and mail voting) increases the likelihood of breaches in security and of human errors. As the public holds the Elections Section more accountable, there is a related responsibility to simplify the inherently complex election process.”

Management of Elections: “The CEOC recommends that the Records, Elections and Licensing Services Division (REALS) Director contract with a consultant to help shape the organization into a cohesive, high performance unit. No other group of public employees is under such great scrutiny.” While recommending the use of a consultant, the CEOC felt that bringing in an elections “turnaround team … would seriously undermine management,” and “appears to be in conflict with state law, which for King County assigns the authorities and responsibilities of running elections to the REALS Director.”

Improve Voter Registration: “The County cannot relax and simply rely on the state database. The Elections Section must take a proactive, educational and cooperative stance in removing the voter records of felons, the deceased, dual registrations and registrations from illegal addresses, and upholding the voting rights of every eligible citizen.”

Improve Election Security: While stating the Elections Section has devoted “considerable effort” to improving security, the CEOC said the next step is “…developing a comprehensive, well-documented election security plan in close consultation with security and computer professionals, election observers and critics, the Secretary of State and other election administrators.”

Elect the County Auditor: The majority of the CEOC recommends making the Elections Director an “elected, non-partisan office” and that the rest of the non-election functions be “transferred to other county agencies, to create a stand-alone elections operation focused on one critical task – conducting elections.”

The CEOC was originally created by the Council in 2003 with the goal of improving performance, accountability and transparency in the Elections Section. Members presented the Council in May of 2004 with a lengthy report and a series of recommendations for enhancement of operations in the Elections Section. While not part of their current mission, committee members said they felt it was important to see if the recommendations from their 2004 report were being implemented. Their new report says they found that “the Executive, the Council, the REALS Director and Elections Section staff have acted and continue to act in good faith to implement the May 2004 CEOC recommendations,” pointing out that many of their recommendations were in place in 2004.

The new report said that the majority of CEOC members recommend the panel continue to meet on a quarterly basis to “observe elections, oversee the implementation of recommendations and oversee other significant changes in elections such as facility consolidation or implementing all-mail elections.”

The Council also heard today from The Election Center, a group of elections professionals who observed the November general election. A 3-member team from the Center spent 280 hours on-site during the November election.

“What we actually saw was a very good election,” testified Ingrid Gonzales, Observation Team Lead from The Election Center, and a former Registrar of Voters for San Bernardino County, CA. “That really says something because when we began the audit, there were some very serious concerns. The improvement that we saw from the time that we finished the audit and then saw the actual election take place was in my view phenomenal.”

The Center’s 79-page Observation Report notes the progress King County Elections has made to address the audit recommendations from October, offers numerous suggestions for specific improvements to elections operations, and outlines two major areas of concern:

• Consolidation of elections facilities, and
• Recruitment and retention of a properly staffed and trained workforce.

"Last year, we proposed a comprehensive, outside audit of Elections to provide a road map to reform," said Councilmember Patterson, co-sponsor of the audit proposal. "This audit has provided a clear set of specific recommendations, developed by election experts from across the Nation. We have a blueprint for a successful turnaround in hand."

Read the full report of the Citizens’ Election Oversight Committee and The Election Center’s Observation Report at: www.metrokc.gov/council/