Reed's a national role model for nonpartisanship

In 2004, Washington Secretary of Sam Reed was at the center of the firestorm created by one of the closest gubernatorial races in U.S. history. Two recounts, multiple lawsuits and six months later, Reed – a Republican – declared that Democrat Chris Gregoire had beaten Republican Dino Rossi by 133 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

For Reed, the chaos of uncertainty during that time was a personal challenge – to reform the system so that it would hold up to scrutiny in future close races.

His fairness during the tense months as vote counts teetered back and forth and his reform efforts afterward are reasons Reed is being honored as one of the nation’s eight top public officials in next month’s issue of Governing magazine. He and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley are the only two statewide elected officials being honored.

It would be hard to find another elected official in this state who has so clearly earned the respect from people across the political spectrum in Washington. They demonstrated it by overwhelmingly re-electing Reed to a third term in 2008.

In an article titled “Counting on Fairness,” Governing reporter John Buntin writes, “What’s most telling about how Reed handled (the 2004 election) is that both parties were angry at him at one time or another. He followed instincts for fairness, not gamesmanship.”

After the 2004 crisis, Reed worked with county auditors to scrub voter rolls, create a statewide voter registration database and improve the training of election workers.

He was a leader in the effort to move up the state primary from September to August in order to give elections officials more of a cushion to determine primary winners – a boon for candidates, too, who would have certainty earlier that they had qualified for the general election. And when the courts struck down the state’s popular blanket primary after it was challenged by the political parties, Reed championed the next best thing: the top-two primary system.

He’s also been a staunch advocate for greater access to voting. For instance, he worked for legislation to restore ex-felons’ right to vote even if they haven’t paid off their court fines.

Anyone looking for an example of how to run an office that cries out for nonpartisan evenhandedness – county auditor, for instance – need look no farther than Reed for inspiration and guidance.

Washington voters are lucky to have him as their top elections official.