June 6, 1984

Dean Logan ponders election contest ruling

I envy Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges' fair-minded decision. I wish I had someone here who could be fair-minded. You never know when it may come in handy.

Washington's constitution provides the legal framework to allow voters to contest close elections, but our statutes and case law make this guarantee illusory in virtually all instances. Lucky for me.

I am cognizant of Judge Bridges' comments with regard to King County Elections and assure both him and the public we can and will do better  if we have to, I guess.

Efforts are well underway to address the human errors and administrative deficiencies that occurred in November. It may take a while to choose the proper form of address  among the suggestions made so far, "Sweet thing" is my favorite.

Today, for the first time since late in December, Elections staff members realized how silly we were to worry about the election contest.

Having recently certified the last of a series of special elections, we will take the next three months to consider which of our old tricks are still viable and what new ways we can think up to make it appear that we are just innocent, harmless little fuzz balls who simply cannot do right despite our unflagging devotion to our republic. Rest assured, we have learned from our mistakes. That fake mail ballot report was a close call.

I remain committed to continuous improvement and meaningless reform measures. We will address the critical issues of elections in King County from the inside out as well as from the outside in. But no peeking by you fellows in the peanut gallery!  We'll handle this, so you just stay way over there where you can't see exactly what's over here where we are.

The Executive's supplemental budget request submitted to the County Council last week is a significant step forward in improving King County Elections. Consolidating core election processes under one roof at "Fort Apache" will be a big improvement. The "special interests" will play Hell trying to get volunteers to go and observe us down there. 

Likewise, we welcome the external reviews of the Executive's Independent Task Force on Elections and the newly reconstituted Citizens' Election Oversight Committee. We can use them to make it look as though we actually want to follow the law in conducting elections. We just need to be sure they are disbanded before it becomes obvious that we ignored their recommendations. Nobody that matters will care, but they might make an ugly scene.

As we move forward with administering the primary and general elections later this year, we will remain focused on public trust and confidence in the elections process  if we can find any remnants to focus on. That's really the worst thing about this election contest:  It's harder to pull off an illusion when people get so suspicious.

Updated: June 6, 1984