Knute Berger's aforementioned profile of Toby Nixon was generally fair and accurate, but has one line that smacks of ignorance and/or bias:
Republican Party conservatives are angry that [Secretary of State Sam] Reed played a neutral role in state and judicial efforts to sort out the close gubernatorial race of 2004No. Republicans weren't angry because Reed was "neutral", but because he defended incompetent and dishonest election officials instead of defending the integrity of the process. Reed and his Elections Director Nixon Handy incessantly pooh-poohed the concerns that King County counted more votes than voters. (here and here).
It turned out that King County officials really did count hundreds more votes than eligible voters, potentially enough to tip the election. Reed wasn't partisan, nor was he neutral. He sided with underperforming bureaucrats and helped deprive the voters of an accurate election.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 06, 2007 09:45 PM | Email ThisThat's the best description of Reed's roll in the election that I've ever heard. Couldn't have put it better.
Posted by: Cliff on April 7, 2007 12:56 PM