A campaign committee called Citizens for Accountable Elections has filed with the PDC for the purpose of supporting a Nov. 2007 ballot initiative to "create the position of an independently elected elections director in King County". The campaign isn't releasing many details yet, and the website is still under construction, but former state Rep. Toby Nixon is listed as the media contact. The existence of a PDC filing would indicate that the group is already raising money.

This movement has been building for a while, inspired by Ron Sims' mismanagement of elections administration, especially in 2004. I first heard the idea of a separately elected non-partisan elections director raised by then Councilman David Irons in January 2005. The Cheryl Scott task force included it as a key recommendation later that year. The CEOC announced it as a key recommendation in its March 2006 report. The County Council was poised to put this charter change on the November 2006 ballot, but the deal fell apart after Sims' allies pressured Bob Ferguson to back out.

The Sims crowd knows that this is a popular idea and would pass if it gets on the ballot. Ron Sims' stated excuse for keeping it off the 2006 ballot was that he had already recruited a (secret) appointee, who would take the job but not run for the office. The candidate, later identified as John Arntz from San Francisco, backed out anyway. I spoke with Arntz and could tell he wasn't a serious candidate to begin with.

The King County elections office remains under the interim leadership of Jim Buck. Buck told the Council recently that "the recruiting of his permanent replacement is moving forward". Sims would do well to assume that the charter change initiative passes in November and accordingly limit his executive search to candidates who are willing to run for the job next year.