Six candidates for King County elections director squared off in a debate Jan. 15, vying for the right to head a department historically plagued by mistakes.
Voters countywide for the first time will decide who gets the job on Feb. 3. The elections director was an appointed role until voters decided last November to make it a non-partisan elected office.
The winner will make $146,000 per year, oversee a budget of over $19 million, and administer up to six elections a year.
Voter turnout for the Feb. 3 special election is expected to be over 30 percent countywide due to the county’s first all mail-in election. But fewer than 10 spectators were on hand for the candidate debate at the Seattle Public Library’s Central Branch.
About the candidates:
• Current elections director Sherril Huff joined the race after telling the media in December 2007 that she wouldn’t run if voters made her job an elected position.
• Christopher Clifford, an Orting School District English teacher, is challenging Huff’s eligibility in King County Superior Court and with the county canvassing board. He claims Huff doesn’t really live in the Seattle home that she recently began leasing. All candidates for King County elections director must reside in the county. Huff lived in Bremerton when she first landed her position, but she changed her voter registration two days before filing for the race.
• Julie Kempf was the King County elections superintendent until 2002, but County Executive Ron Sims fired her after mistakes with absentee ballots. Internal reports indicated that Kempf was misleading about the mistake, although she claims to have passed along information that she believed to be true at the time. “I didn’t perform enough due diligence on information that had been given to me before I gave it to the press,” Kempf said. “That’s a mistake I’m never going to make again in a public leadership position.”
• David Irons is a former County Council member. Irons ran an unsuccessful bid to unseat Sims in 2005. He’s a telecommunications entrepreneur who says his management experience would help him administer fair elections. “This is a new office,” Irons said. “It’s all about experience, knowledge and proven leadership.”
• Pam Roach is a Republican and state Senator from the 31st District, which includes Black Diamond. She serves on the Senate Operations and Elections Committee. She has shown strong support for the initiative process and was also a prime sponsor of the Help America Vote Act. Her detractors have said she has a history of erratic and inappropriate behavior, but “I believe I’ve been very effective in the Senate, but I do think a change of venue for me would be good,” Roach said. “I have a very specific knowledge about elections that not many people do.”
• Bill Anderson, who lives in Auburn, says his experience as a bank-industry executive and software engineer has given him the experience to manage ballot-counting more effectively than anyone else. “I have experience handling very large number of checks, transactions, and people and callers,” Anderson said. “We need to have someone in the elections director position who has that kind of experience.”
