Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Electing an Elections Director: Sherril Huff

In their infinite wisdom (that’s sarcasm, in case you didn’t already know it), last year the voters of King County decided to arrange it such that their Elections Director can’t be fired if he or she is incompetent.  How did they “achieve” this?  Simple—they made the position an elective office.

The initial Elections Director election is coming along very soon ... as in the ballots are being mailed out right now.  For this, our first all-mail election, the postmark-by date for ballots is February 3.

Although Washington elections are now supposed to operate on the “top two” principle—another bit of initiative/referendum wisdom (NOT), this time at the state level—this one isn’t being run that way.  No, for some reason this has been defined as a special election, which means that whichever candidate receives a plurality of the votes will be elected.  No cutdown to two, no requirement of attaining a majority.

Although the procedure by which we will elect this vitally-important county official—a (very) off-season, low-turnout, plurality-based election—appears to have been designed to baffle the voters into making a poor choice, we are fortunate to have a candidate in the race who shines far above the competition.  That candidate is Sherril Huff.

Sherril Huff is, in essence, the incumbent in the race.  She was named Director of Elections a couple of years ago when it was (properly, IMHO) an appointed position.  As Director of Elections, she has coordinated King County’s efficient and entirely uncontroversial elections ever since.  In fact, as I noted a few weeks ago, King County was, amazingly, the second county in the state to report its final counts in the November general election. 

Sherril Huff is an experienced and highly respected professional in elections administration.  Only one of the other five candidates for Elections Director has even the slightest background in running elections, and that other person was fired (and prosecuted) for some shady actions in the darker days of King County Elections.  Two of the other candidates are, in fact, highly partisan party hacks politicians, seemingly more interested in seeing their own names in print (and their own party in control) than in election integrity or technological innovation.  At last count, Huff has been endorsed by the Auditors (that is, Elections Directors) of at least 32 of the other 38 counties in Washington.  The Auditors in Clark, Grant, Kittitas, Okanogan, Stevens, and Wahkiakum seem to be sitting on the sidelines at the moment ... they certainly haven’t endorsed any of the lesser candidates.

The only potential problem for Huff is her very professionalism—she doesn’t have a great deal of name recognition.  In contrast, some of the others have plenty of (negative) name recognition, but zero experience or competence related to the position.  Facing a short timeframe for the election, it’s essential that the word gets out that Sherril Huff is the right candidate for the position.  It’s essential that the voters of King County remember to fill in the oval next to the name Sherril Huff on the ballots they’ll be receiving in the mail in the next few days.  And, of course, it’s essential that the voters stamp and mail their Sherril Huff ballots by February 3.

King County’s elections are now in excellent hands.  Let’s keep it that way.

[UPDATE (9am, January 15)]:

A forum on the Elections Director position, sponsored by the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce and moderated by Debbie Berto (publisher, Issaquah Press) and Jim Vesely (editorial page editor, Seattle Times), will take place on Saturday morning at the Golf Club at Newcastle.  The agenda calls for half-hour meet-and-greets at 9am and 11am, surrounding a “structured forum” running from 9:30 through 11:00.  The Newcastle CC requests RSVPs by email, though I bet they won’t be turning away anyone who shows up unexpectedly.

All six candidates have confirmed their attendance.  We’ve already seen, however, that such confirmation doesn’t mean they’ll actually show up.  I suspect, however, that La Cucaracha and “Fists of” Irons are somewhat less likely to duck this one than that earlier forum in front of known Democrats.