SEATTLE — The woman who’s in charge of elections in Pierce County, Auditor Pat McCarthy, included a note to voters in their ballot envelopes this year, asking for feedback about the county’s new election system.
Two of her opponents or their campaigns said Tuesday there’s a problem with that: McCarthy’s on the ballot herself, running for county executive as a Democrat. They say her note comes across almost like a political ad.
“I don’t know of any other candidate who gets to put self-promotional material in a ballot envelope,” said Charla Neuman, an adviser to Republican hopeful Shawn Bunney.
But McCarthy said she did nothing improper, and Nick Handy, elections director with the Secretary of State’s Office, said he’s inclined to agree. It’s important for officials to get feedback about the county’s new system, in which voters rank their top candidates instead of choosing one, and sending the survey was squarely within the auditor’s job duties, McCarthy and Handy said.
“In my capacity as county auditor I have a responsibility and a mandate to educate voters and do voter outreach,” McCarthy said. “That’s my job. That’s what I do every day.”
The first thing Pierce County voters see when they open their ballots is the “Dear Voter” note from McCarthy, which takes up the top third of the one-page mailing. It ends above the fold with her name and signature, and is followed by the survey itself on the bottom two-thirds of the page.
McCarthy is running against three other candidates to replace Democratic Executive John Ladenburg, who’s trying to unseat state Attorney General Rob McKenna. The other candidates are Bunney; his colleague on the county council, Democrat Calvin Goings; and Mike Lonergan, who’s running under his own “Executive Excellence” party label.
Goings said the mailing smacks of “old school cronyism” and “people looking out for themselves, not the interests of Pierce County taxpayers.”
Lonergan did not immediately return a call for comment.
Pierce County is the only county in the state with “ranked choice voting,” which voters narrowly approved in 2006. This is the first year it’s been used. The County Council approved $200,000 for voter outreach about the new system, on the condition that the outreach efforts “shall use no name, image or likeness of any Pierce County official.”
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