On Feb. 3, we held our first vote by mail-only election to choose an elected Director of Elections from among six candidates.
The results of the vote unequivocally show that the people of King County like the professional we have in charge and want to keep her working for us. More than a week after the deadline for mail-in ballots, the current appointed Director, Sherril Huff, was easily defeating all of her opponents with 46 percent of the vote and over a 115,000 ballots cast in her favor. That’s more than twice the number won by her closest competitor.
Huff’s triumph is something of a vindication for outgoing King County Executive Ron Sims, who tapped her to take over the Elections Division in 2007. Huff previously served the people of Kitsap County as their Auditor for eight years; she was elected twice to that office. She understands what’s involved in managing elections, and her experience is invaluable given just how large King County is: we‘re the thirteenth most populous in the United States. (If King County were a state, by itself, it would rank ahead of fourteen others in population).
We are unquestionably a diverse county, stretching from the bays of of Puget Sound to the snowy peaks of the Cascades. That makes our elections very complex and logistically challenging (remember the Election Day flood of November 2006?). We’re fortunate to have somebody in charge who not only has extensive expertise, but who is determined to improve performance and accountability with each election.
What are Huff’s priorities for the next two years? First on her agenda is the completion of our transition to vote by mail. We still haven’t had a primary or general election with polling places closed. Huff‚Äôs team is preparing to bring new high speed scanners online that are necessary for counting a larger volume of mail in ballots.
Second, Huff wants to strengthen outreach, building more partnerships with the community. The Elections Division has already unveiled a cool new feature that allows voters to track what happens to their ballot online at King County’s Web site, so we can be assured that our votes are being counted. Huff would like to develop better relationships with civic groups working to register voters and increase turnout. Huff has also said she’d like to expand the number of accessible polling locations and ballot drop off sites in future elections.
She has strong ties to elections officials in Washington’s other counties — in fact, she was endorsed by nearly every other auditor in the state during her campaign. She plans to continue pushing for changes to state law that will allow for greater transparency and accuracy.
Now that she is an elected leader in her own right, she’ll have greater autonomy, though she says the County Council is already listening and providing her team with the resources they need.
Congratulations to her on her victory and congratulations to us for making a smart choice on Feb. 3.
Andrew Villeneuve, a 2005 Redmond High graduate, is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a Redmond-based grassroots organization. Villeneuve can be reached at andrew@nwprogressive.org.
