"Shocked anyone would hire Dean Logan as an election official"

The L.A. Times has an interesting background story on embattled County Registrar Dean Logan, who had the misfortune of presiding over the county's double-bubble trouble outbreak that caused 50,000 votes to initially not be counted on the Feb 5 primary.

Apparently, Logan was the head of King County's elections (the Washington state county which includes Seattle) in 2004 when one of the closest gubernatorial contests ended up with the initial outcome (A Republican win) being overturned for a Democratic winner.  Recounts in Logan;s county accounted for the change.

A GOP official who said he was "shocked that anyone would hire Dean Logan," went on to describe the 2004 governor's race like this:

"It might be the last thing I think about before I die," said Vance, the former state Republican Party chairman who was a King County councilman as well as a state legislator. "It was unbelievably bitter and all-consuming for all of us. It was one of the biggest things that has ever happened in my professional life."

Ouch!  Still, Democrats in King County remember Logan fondly, but the election was rough enough on Logan that he took a job as L.A. county deputy registrar in 2006, and is now interim head of the registrar since Connie McCormak's recent retirement.

In all fairness to Logan, regarding the double-bubble mess, the ballot was approved in 2002, years before he got to the county.  Additionally, Logan did attempt to clarify the double-bubble problem (some say a little half-heartedly) in his time as interim head of the department.