Sen. Pam Roach Makes the Case For Jason Osgood

Sen. Pam Roach Makes the Case For Jason Osgood. Roach clearly and succinctly describes a problem for which there is one best solution; Jason Osgood!

Voters should choose King County elections director
June 16, 2006Voters should

Dean Logan’s upcoming departure as King County elections director ends a period in which many voters lost faith in our elections system. But it presents an opportunity to regain the people’s trust in this civic institution and make this crucial government position more accountable to the public.

King County is the only county in our state that allows its top elections official to be appointed (by its county executive), not elected by the people.

Voters in Washington’s 38 other counties choose their elections director, who is usually the county auditor. That’s the way it should be. Voting is the foundation of our democratic process. If that foundation is cracked, it not only reduces voters’ confidence and trust in this process, it also undermines the support and trust many of us have in our elected officials.

Now that the smoke has cleared, we can bring King County in line with the rest of the state by allowing its voters, rather than the county executive, to choose their elections director.

In 2005, I introduced Senate Bill 5667, which would make the chief elections official an elective office in all counties in Washington, including King County. The bill was favorably received but not acted on by the Legislature.

We all still remember the costly mistakes made by the county’s elections department that tarnished the 2004 gubernatorial election and left a bitter taste in the mouths of many voters, not only in King County but throughout Washington. Mistakes included overlooked absentee ballots left out of the count, provisional ballots tallied without verification of voter eligibility beforehand, and wide discrepancies in the records of voters voting and ballots cast.

It’s ironic that the one county in Washington that allows its elections supervisor to be appointed rather than elected happens to be the symbol for election problems in our state. The people in King County deserve better. Instead of being accountable to only one person, the elections director of Washington’s most populous county needs to be accountable to the voters.

Early this year, members of the Citizens Election Oversight Committee said King County should choose its elections director by a public vote. The committee, which was created by the King County Council to review elections procedures in the county, said voting for the director would increase the public accountability of that office.

And if the elections director doesn’t perform up to expectations? Then voters could remove him or her and elect someone else. That’s why we so desperately need to bring real accountability to this office!

King County shouldn’t wait for the Legislature to take action on this issue. In fact, there are two ways it can make its elections director an elected position: 1) through a county charter amendment adopted by the county council and then approved by voters; or 2) through a citizens initiative to change the county charter.

The King County Council should act now to provide accountability in our elections department by putting a charter amendment vote to the people this November.

-end-

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, is ranking Republican on the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee.

Jessie Bloom Quoted at Knoll Funeral Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Knoll lauded at funeral
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Amid a keen of bagpipe and a whirlwind of memories, Catherine Baker Knoll, a woman who sometimes fought for respect, was paid tribute today in a cathedral filled with political leaders and presided over by seven bishops.

The powerful came: Gov. Ed Rendell, Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter, members of the General Assembly.

Elsie Hillman, grand dame of the state's Republicans, sat alongside Democratic Auditor General Jack Wagner and joined him in offering the prayers of intercession.

Too, came the ordinary citizens who had brushed shoulders, pressed hands and shared chicken dinners and neighborhood coffees with Mrs. Knoll, the state's lieutenant governor who died Nov. 12.

"Whenever we called her she came. Whenever we needed someone," said Jessie Bloom, Democratic chair in Lycoming County, a place dominated by the GOP, and a venue to which party leaders often struggled to find high profile speakers for events.

"We always have trouble getting some of the candidates, particularly the statewide candidates, to come to this area. She never refused us," said Mrs. Bloom, who drove in from Williamsport for today's services at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oakland.

"I'm just devastated over this happening to her."

Mrs. Knoll, 78, of McKees Rocks, died of neuroendocrine cancer.