Well, why not?
We have an election coming up after all.
Fired absentee-vote supervisor can get job back
By Sharon Pian Chan
Seattle Times staff reporter
Nicole Way, a King County elections employee who was fired after problems with the 2004 election, is owed back pay and the right to return to her old job, an arbitrator ruled Monday.
The absentee-ballot supervisor was fired last year in the wake of the contested governor's election after investigators found that she failed to count 100 ballots and falsified a report that said all ballots were accounted for in the November election.
Way, who contested the firing, did not return phone calls seeking comment Monday.
The arbitrator overturned Way's termination and gave her a three-month suspension instead, the elections department said. Because she was fired more than three months ago, the county will owe her back pay.
"Ultimately, the arbiter agreed the county had just cause to discipline Ms. Way in relation to her omissions, mistakes and errors of judgment in the conduct of the 2004 general election but nevertheless overturned her termination," elections-department spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said in a statement.
Way's union, Teamsters Local 117, represented her in the arbitration with King County, which is final and binding.
"We're always happy when the just-cause provision of the collective-bargaining agreement is upheld," said Leonard Smith, director of organizing for Local 117.
"The punishment was too severe for the action, I guess, which is what the arbitrator ruled."
Egan said the department is talking to Way about whether she wants her job back.
Way became a key witness for the Republican Party in its challenge to the 2004 governor's election between Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi.
Gregoire won by 129 votes in a manual recount after losing two machine counts.
The county hired an independent law firm to investigate the election when uncounted ballots were found several months after the election.
The report from that investigation said Way ignored her boss's instructions, "constructed" an explanation for not counting more than 100 legitimate votes, and acted nonchalant when ballots were missing.
The elections director at the time, Dean Logan, quit the department this summer to take a job in Southern California. An acting director is now running the department, which will move to all-mail elections after a permanent director is hired.
King County Executive Ron Sims hoped to appoint a new director by September but says he has been hampered by the Metropolitan King County Council's discussion of turning the appointed position into an elected office.
Although the council has not voted on the proposal yet, some council members support submitting the question to voters this fall. |
