Election Pros Are Cons
Seattle Weekly, 2004
by George Howland Jr.

Two felons have been involved in printing and processing ballots for King County—one of them a convicted embezzler. A voter activist calls this a security breach.

Watchdog Bev Harris fueled a national debate over election integrity.

BEV HARRIS HAS tangled with election bigwigs around the country. Her exposés of shady practices, conflicts of interest, and poor security in both the private and public sectors have helped ignite a national debate over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system. Now the 52-year-old Renton resident is claiming that there are local examples of lax security, too—at the King County Department of Records, Elections, and Licensing Services. She says the elections office has John Elder, a convicted drug dealer, printing ballots and Jeff Dean, a 23-count embezzler, programming software. ...

Elder says he cannot comment due to the policy of his employer, Diebold Election Systems—itself the target, nationwide, for activist scrutiny of its election computer systems. Through a spokesperson, Diebold says it is aware of Elder’s background and sees no problem.

Dean Logan, the King County Director of Records and Elections, confirms that Elder is in a supervisory position with Diebold, which prints and sorts the county’s absentee ballots, but he says Elder’s criminal history is not an issue.

Logan also points out that Dean has not worked as a subcontractor for the county since April 2002, and “I’ve not seen anything to demonstrate that the systems in the past were compromised.” Says Logan: “My greater confidence comes in knowing that the systems we are using today are fully secure.” .....

Before his release [from prison], Dean told prison officials he had secured employment with Postal Services of Washington, in Seattle, which today is known as PSI. For years, the company has sorted and aggregated mail for clients, including ballots for King County Records and Elections.