Also in the P-I
Councilman Bob Ferguson [D-Seattle] has teamed with the GOP Council minority to put a provision for a popularly-elected auditor on the ballot for King County voters. Ron Sims was pissed, but still wrong. Dwight Pelz thinks the idea runs contrary to recent "reforms" and will "bring chaos." Apparently Pelz has not ventured away from home lately into every other county in the state.
I don't see why giving this idea a try is a poor decision, King County's system has had its problems and this measure will bring it into line with everyone else. After all, it isn't as if people are knocking down Ron Sims' door to take over the elections department, at least this way the auditor will be held responsible at the ballot box.
posted by TMW @ 1:41 PM
2 Comments:
I have two concerns about this:
1) The job isn't something any political hack can do. The winner of a vote might be the better politician and campaigner, but not necessarily someone competent to run an elections office of the size of King County.
2) As soon as you make this a partisan position (I have no illusions it can truly be non-partisan once you do that) it sets the stage for worse partisan politics than ever whenever there is a contested race.
1. I agree, and would hope neither major party would nominate a political hack. Other counties' auditors, in my experience, are generally qualified to do the job (and conversely, if voters elect somebody not qualified they made their own grave). Given the elections department's issues I'm willing to see where it leads.
2. Ideally, I would like races like county auditors and the secretary of state to be nonpartisan, since what the job entails is not partisan in nature. I will never understand why municipal races are almost always nonpartisan and at the same time offices like county auditor, assessor, treasurer, and coroner have to be partisan.
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