Interesting Seattle Times article

Today's Seattle Times has an article about how low morale is in the King's County Election office. The reasons cited for this are poor management and the public's anger over the 2004 Gubenatorial election in Washington.

If you don't remember, Last year's governor's race in Washington was won by only 129 votes by Democrat Christine Gregoire 0ver Republican Dino Rossi.

This was after the original vote count showed Mr. Rossi leading and while three more re-counts were being done, the King's County(That's Seattle) Election office kept finding more ballots that been 'misplaced'. After a 3rd recount Ms. Gregorie was declared the winner. Recently a judge upheld the election result.

To me even if the 2004 result was legitimate, the King's County Election office is obviously poorly run. A little reported fact in the coverage of the election is that over 200 voters are registerd in King's County giving their address as the election office. That smells very fishy to me and I would think so to any reasonable person. The people of Washington have a good reason to be angry. This office needs to get its act to together or any election's integrity will always be in doubt.

The entire Seattle Times article can be found at- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002340258_morale18m.html

Morale "very low" among election workers
Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

Morale among King County election workers is at an all-time low because of poor management and public anger over the bungled 2004 election, workers say in a new look at their work world.

"This whole election snafu is a total embarrassment. Whenever anyone asks where I work, I'm humiliated before I even say anything," one worker wrote in an anonymous online survey released yesterday.

Another called Elections Director Dean Logan and his newly demoted assistant, Superintendent Bill Huennekens, "small-town boys with no experience in running a large election operation. We well deserve the appelation [sic] of the 'worst election department in the United States.'

"Other respondents said they were proud of their work and expressed fierce loyalty to Logan in their no-holds-barred responses to the survey conducted by the King County Independent Task Force on Elections.

The panel, appointed by County Executive Ron Sims, is scheduled to make its recommendations for improving elections July 31. The task force was set up after a series of election mishaps, including the discovery this spring that 96 valid absentee ballots were not counted.

The task force released survey results yesterday in response to a public-records request by The Seattle Times. Thirty-four of 47 full-time and long-term temporary workers responded.Among the findings:

• Seventy-three percent said internal communication is poor.

• Fifty-nine percent said written procedures and manuals are poor or nonexistent.

• Seventy-six percent reported low or very low confidence in Huennekens. Fifty-six percent had high or very high confidence in Logan.

• More workers felt things have gotten worse since 2002 than felt things have improved.

• Fifty-four percent rated their own morale as poor, and 48 percent said they are embarrassed to work in elections.

"What was compelling to me was the depth of the staff's concerns," said task force chairwoman Cheryl Scott. "These people want to do a good job. They're not people who don't care."Morale is very low. [The staff] has the idea they're not listened to."