Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy’s search for budget savings has found a controversial target: poll voting.

County Auditor Jan Shabro told me she met with

McCarthy yesterday to discuss the auditor’s 2010 budget. The executive said in that meeting that her 2010 budget plan – due later this month – will not include $150,000 needed to keep Pierce County polls open next year.

It’s far from certain the polls will close. The County Council will have the final say over the budget and funding for the polls. And Council members have repeatedly expressed their support for poll voting.

In May the council declined Shabro’s request to conduct this year’s August and November elections exclusively by mail to save money. And in July the council approved a list of budget priorities that included keeping the polls open.

But McCarthy’s plan – first floated in May – shows the county’s budget troubles are serious enough that she’s willing to propose a cut that will be extremely unpopular with many voters. It also shows just how tenuous is Pierce County’s position as the only county in the state that still allows some voters to cast their ballots at the polls.

Earlier this year the Legislature considered – but did not pass – a proposal that would have forced the county to close its polling places.

Unless the Legislature or the council changes the law, Shabro said she’s obligated to keep the polls open. Shabro said McCarthy wants to start a conversation about poll voting.

After yesterday’s meeting with the executive, Shabro attended a County Council study session, where she asked council members to restore the $150,000 for poll voting in the 2010 budget.

Consider the conversation started.

Update: I talked to Pat McCarthy a while ago. She said it’s hard to justify spending money to keep

the polls open when so few people use them and there are other ways for people to vote. In last month’s primary election, she said about 3 percent of voters who were eligible to vote at the polls did so.

(I pointed out last November's polling place turnout was much higher – about 56 percent. McCarthy thinks the turnout for that election was an anomaly brought about by what many sensed was a historic presidential race.)

McCarthy said paying for that is a hard sell at a time when she’s telling the sheriff’s department and other county departments they’ll have to cut staff next year. The $150,000 for polling places is enough to pay for a sheriff’s deputy or prosecuting attorney, she said.

“It’s very costly,” she said of poll voting. “It just is not justifiable when you have such a low percentage of people who are accessing this option.”

McCarthy acknowledged the council may find $150,000 elsewhere in the budget to keep the polls open. But she said she’ll submit a budget based on priorities she can justify.

“People elected me to make good, well-though-out decisions,” she said. “Not everyone will agree with those.”

This alert came in from the Associated Press:

Oscar voters to rank best-picture choices Eds: APNewsNow. Moving on general news and entertainment services. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Academy Awards voters are going to have to put extra effort into their choices for best picture. Oscar overseers are adopting a preferential-voting system in which academy members rank their best-picture favorites from 1 to 10. The change was made because of the academy’s decision to expand the best-picture field from five nominees to 10 starting with the awards next March. Under the old system with five nominees, voters simply chose one film, making the winner the one that received the most votes. The new method adds weight to voters’ No. 2 and 3 picks. If the academy had maintained the old system, the best-picture prize conceivably could have gone to a film with barely 10 percent of the vote.

Okay, so it's not exactly like Pierce County's ranked choice voting system. But we can't wait until Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington start doing RCV ads. And when does Dale Washam pick up his Oscar?

Here is the Associated Press story on the latest federal court ruling on the legal challenges to the Top-Two primary.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge in Seattle has refused to dismiss a legal challenge to Washington’s top-two primary system.

Secretary of State Sam Reed had asked the court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties.

Even though the state’s top-two primary was upheld last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge John Coughenour ruled Thursday the parties can continue to challenge how the primary is conducted.

The secretary of state’s office says the ruling means a new round of litigation that could change how candidates are listed on the ballot or in the voters’ pamphlet.

State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz said the ruling means the state will have to amend the current law.

Pierce County released an updated vote tally, but none of the results have changed. The county elections crew plans to work into the night. Check back here in the morning for any changes.

Remember that because all absentee ballots postmarked by today need to be counted, it will take a few more days to get solid results in the closer races.

Assuming their comfortable leads hold up as more votes are counted, former anchorwoman Susan Hutchison and King County Council Chairman Dow Constantine will face off in the Nov. 3 general election for King County executive. The much-coveted executive position attracted eight candidates following the departure of Ron Sims to the Obama Administration.

I talked to Pierce County Auditor Jan Shabro this afternoon. She said she visited eight polling places and express booths this morning.

Not surprisingly, it was pretty slow. Shabro expects tonight’s vote count to be routine. Here’s the schedule:

8:30 p.m. First release, absentee ballots processed through election day.

10:30 p.m. Second release, poll results.

12 a.m. Third release, poll results.

2 a.m. Fourth release, final election night unofficial results.

Starting tomorrow, the auditor’s office will release the latest results each day at 5 p.m. (except weekends and holidays). The election will be certified on Sept. 2.

Check Political Buzz this evening for the latest results.

That's the word from the Secretary of State's office, and those election folks are the ones who should know.

I got an e-mail on behalf of a candidate, someone who thought candidates were being unfairly (and illegally) denied access to homes in gated communities and could not doorbell. Her e-mail is below, but I deleted her name. She was well-meaning, but wrong.

Hi Joe,
Can you print some information for the public regarding the legal right of candidates to enter gated communities to campaign.
It would be useful to the great number of non-partisan candidates running this year.
I know there is precedent on this issue, but some people get very mean and threatening.
Thanks for your help.

…and no, this is not for me, it’s for others less experienced and the people who live out in the south county in all these new gated places.
Thanks!

Here is the official word from state election folks:

Joe,

Gated communities are private property. We don't know of any basis on
which candidates can demand to enter private property, even for purposes of campaigning.

=> Read more!

OK, August seems a little early for election season, but here we are anyway geared up for a slate of primary contests for municipal offices. Believe it or not, there's actually some drama on the ballot today.

Look for coverage here and on the homepage, starting at about 8:15 p.m. Here are the storylines we're watching closely.

• Will voters oust embattled Federal Way Municipal Judge Michael Morgan in the primary? Normally, muni court judge races fly under the radar. But Morgan's behavior in office has earned him a reprimand from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and five challengers. Morgan has made a fight of it, outspending the other candidates to keep his job.

• Will Tacoma School Board Director Connie Rickman survive a crowded primary against five challengers? Rickman was the most vocal supporter of controversial former superintendent Charlie Milligan. Rickman hasn't reported spending any money, so she may be counting on name familiarity and the fact that any detractors may split their votes among the challengers.

• Who will contend in November in Tacoma for two open City Council seats representing south and east districts? In Puyallup, who will survive the three primary races for council?

• Which of several heavyweights will emerge from the fight over the much coveted King County executive slot?

• Will Seattle voters bag the proposed grocery bag tax? (My guess: Yes.)

What are your predictions?

Had I been good at math, I'd be a doctor or something. So, for now at least, I'm gonna let state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, explain why he thinks Referendum 71 may end up failing to make the ballot.

The referendum seeks to put before voters the issue of changing laws regarding gay partnerships – the so-called everything-but-marriage law.

Backers of the referendum (opponents of the partners law) turned in 137,689 signatures of voters. They need to have 120,577 valid signatures to make the November ballot. The secretary of state's office is now verifying the signatures to make sure they are from registered voters and are not duplicates.

That has left backers and opponents to speculate as to whether there are enough valid signatures. And they read the tea leaves of daily counts of valid vs. invalid signatures to feed the speculation.

Here is today's analysis by Murray:

Statement from Sen. Ed Murray on R-71 signature count

The current rate of invalid signatures reported by the Secretary of State’s office in the R-71 signature count gives me great hope that the referendum won’t make the ballot.

However, there’s a bit of confusion out there about how the count is trending because of an inconsistency in the math used to report the rate.

The Secretary of State’s blog first reported that the error rate had to stay under 14.2 percent for the referendum to qualify – referred to as ‘the cushion.’

That cushion was derived by dividing the number of signatures turned in (137,689) by the number needed to qualify (120,577) and subtracting 1.

With the cumulative invalid rate of 13.3 percent as of Wednesday, many have been led to believe that the referendum supporters are within their cushion.

“This is wrong.

That because in its subsequent reporting of the daily signature check, the Secretary of State’s blog reversed its math, dividing the number of signatures verified by the number examined.

It’s confusing when one method is used to determine the overall rates and the opposite method is used in the daily reports.

If the Secretary of State’s blog had first used the math that it is using now, it would have divided the total they need to verify (120,577) by the total number they will count (137,689) --and, again, subtracted 1 -- for a maximum invalid rate of 12.4 percent.

Or, if the Secretary of State’s blog were still using the math it began with, the current error rate would be 15.4 percent, rather than 13.3 percent.

We know that 15.4 percent is higher than 14.2 percent, and 13.3 percent is higher than 12.4 percent.

Either way, when consistent methods are used, the current rate of invalid signatures clearly suggests that R-71 won’t make the ballot.

If you're mulling over your primary ballot this weekend and want more information about the candidates, check out our online voter guide that went live this weekend.

We've now been doing the voter guides for several years and they've always proved popular with Web site users. We think that they provide an extra layer of information beyond the official voters guides put out by the county and state. Along with biographical information, we're able to ask candidates specific questions relevant to their races.

This year, we're seeing several hotly contested primaries. In Tacoma, four candidates are running to unseat school board member Connie Rickman and two City Council districts have three-way races. There's a surge of interest in the Puyallup City Council, with no fewer than three primaries. Of course, up in Federal Way, a crowd of candidates is trying to oust controversial Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan.

We'll continue to cover these and other races on this blog and in print, but the voters guide is a good way to start sizing up the candidates.

They're calling it a "Republican Resurgence Rally" and Michael Steele will the special guest.

Steele is a former lieutenant governor of Maryland and the first African-American to lead the national GOP. The rally begins at 6 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue Hotel, 900 Bellevue Way NE. Admission is $25.

Also speaking will be state Attorney General Rob McKenna, state Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt and state party chairman Luke Esser.

For $500, attendees get into a a VIP reception and photo opportunity with Steele, beginning at 5 p.m.

Watch Esser's invitation.