I was heartened to see that Sherril Huff has decided to run for her current job as head of the county Elections Division.
As an already-certified elections administrator, she has done an admirable job honoring and building upon the reforms instituted following the 2004 gubernatorial election.
That’s the election that threw into question whether the county was equipped to run a fair, mistake-free election. We’ve come too far since those days to turn over our elections to someone with little or no experience managing an election.
Huff will face off on Feb. 3 against five other candidates, in a race set in motion when voters decided in November they want to elect the county’s top elections official. That list includes the names of some well-known politicians and a former top elections official.
The five are:
• David Irons, a former County Council member who lost a bid to become county executive in 2005.
• Julie Anne Kempf, who was fired from her job as an elections supervisor during controversy over how the county mailed absentee ballots for the November 2002 election.
• Pam Roach, a state senator from the 31st District.
• Bill Anderson of Auburn.
• Chris Clifford of Renton, known as a good-government watchdog who has attempted the recall of several elected officials.
Huff brings to the table a wealth of political experience (a former Bremerton deputy mayor and Kitsap County auditor) and that all-important professional elections experience. None of the other candidates can match the breadth of that experience.
The Feb. 3 election – the first all-mail vote in the county’s history – is winner-take- all. The victor serves for two years, then runs for a four-year term. At 63, perhaps Huff, if she wins, would only want to serve those two years. If so, her victory would ensure another two years for the election reforms to take hold and for the county to transition to all-mail voting.
At a minimum, we need those two years so that the county has a chance to develop worthy candidates for the important position of elections director.
