King County Elections Director Gets Earful From Voters

Summary

Dean Logan held a town hall meeting Tuesday night in Shoreline to explain the election process and hear voter concerns.

Story Published: Apr 13, 2005 at 3:08 AM PST

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 10:54 AM PST

King County Elections Director Gets Earful From Voters
SHORELINE - The man in charge of elections in King County gave voters a chance to sound off on the November election controversies.

Dean Logan held a town hall meeting in Shoreline, where he wanted to explain the election process and the mistakes that were made. He opened the meeting up for question and answer, and that's when some people took it as an opportunity to challenge the elections supervisor.

"Don't hide behind the what you're hiding behind now," one man in the audience told Logan. "Come out and tell us the truth in everything you say!"

John Overlees argued it's a matter of regaining trust in the system, and he told Logan to the only thing he can do to fix it is resign. "There's been so many inaccuracies, so many failures," Overlees said, "that it is incumbent of him to step down."

People heard Logan's explanation on everything from the issue of those pesky "uncounted ballots" to the new independent board hired to investigate it all.

Charlie Bendock appreciated Logan taking the heat in meeting. "I'm just glad everyone gets to come out and say something." He said. "It sounds like he's doing an honest job of trying to explain it to us. There's a lot of information, so it's really easy to see things from your perspective only."

It was a tough meeting for the elections supervisor to sit through, but in the end he described it as a productive town hall.

"I think it's important to come out and hear this. It's not fun. It's difficult to take some of it," Logan said. "But at the heart of it people were frustrated, and I respect that."