The choice for county elections director is clear.
We can choose an experienced elections professional or pick from one of two longtime Republican office holders, one of two political gadflies or someone who was once fired from the agency she seeks to head.
Sherril Huff, the appointed director for two years, has made an important contribution toward restoring the reputation of the elections department after the 2004 election for governor.
During Huff’s directorship, the department has consolidated its operations in its new office; she has prepared the county for conversion to an all-mail system; and she has helped purge the voter roles.
I opposed the initiative that put the charter amendment on the ballot and the proposed amendment itself. Yet, since we must vote, let’s vote for someone who has shown she can run the department efficiently and fairly.
I have strong reservations about all the other candidates.
Both David Irons and Pam Roach are longtime Republican politicians whose election would defeat the purpose of the new position by putting it directly into the hands of a party activist. Initiative sponsors said they wanted to take the elections office out of the jurisdiction of the partisan county executive.
Electing Irons, a former Republican County Council member and candidate for executive, would give the office a direct partisan look. Roach, one of the most conservative Republicans in the state Senate, has a polarizing persona that makes her an interesting member of the Legislature but would not fit the needs of this office.
Bill Anderson and Christopher Clifford, on the other hand, are running as outsiders. Anderson, a semi-retired bank executive, touts his lack of political experience. He argues that success in ensuring the accuracy of bank deposits and transfers as his bank was transitioning from paper to computers, makes him qualified to oversee vote counting, which he claims faces the same potential problems as banking does. He wrote a letter to this and other papers in late December, saying that the elections office was “living in the dark ages,” without identifying himself as a candidate.
Clifford, a teacher, has made a name for himself battling corruption, particularly in filing a recall petition against a Port commissioner. It’s hard to imagine that either of these outsiders could gain the confidence of the elections staff for the August and November elections. The same is true for the two Republican politicians.
Gaining staff confidence would be even harder for the last candidate, Julie Kempf, who was fired from the elections office in 2002 for not mailing absentee ballots on time and then lying about the incident. She denies the charges.
The underwhelming quality of the field is probably why Huff broke with her initial protestations and decided to run as filing opened in December. To run, Huff had to move into the county. Clifford challenged her residency, but the county Canvassing Board ruled in her favor.
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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