3 King County Election Workers Suspended

3 King County Election Workers Suspended

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Story Published: Apr 5, 2005 at 4:12 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:54 AM PDT

By Bryan Johnson

SEATTLE - There's a new flap over vote counting in King County.

Three county election workers were suspended Tuesday evening after another mail ballot snafu -- this one involving the upcoming April 26 hospital levy election.

Last week, the three workers were transferred from the mail processing headquarters to the elections office downtown after they failed to completely process 93 absentee votes in the Nov. 2 election.

The 93 ballots had been signature-checked, but the ballots were left inside secrecy envelopes and never processed. King County Executive Ron Sims called that incident "extremely upsetting" and two Republican members of the King County Council had called for the resignation of elections superintendent Dean Logan.

Sims stood by Logan saying the problem may have stemmed from workers who refused to adapt to changes that Logan had ordered in the department. "I have no tolerance for people who will not follow standard operating procedures," Sims said.

But the suspensions came Tuesday after a second development. This one involved complaints from eight county voters that they had received information about an upcoming mail-only hospital levy election on April 26. But there was no ballot inside the envelopes.

The three employees were in charge of mailing ballots to the military, out of state voters, and voters overseas. Because of the goof, King County is re-mailing all 900 ballots in the hospital levy election.

King County Councilman Reagan Dunn is calling for Logan's resignation. "Three underlings burried in the bowels of the elections department, when clearly this is a problem right all the way at the top of the elections department, it's passing the buck," he said.

Sims said he has no plans to fire Logan.

The workers were put on paid administrative leave while the two incidents are being investigated. They have not been identified.

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