As voters begin to receive their absentee ballots for the Sept. 20 primary, a foreboding will creep into many minds about when - and whether - their votes will be counted.

When election snafus first surfaced two years ago, most King County residents shrugged it off as one of those things that happens, and felt certain the problems would be solved - they weren't.

An elections officer was fired, a new elections directed was hired and many of us figured the problem now had been solved.

Then election of November 2004. it was a grim, unfunny story that unfolded. Ballots were found in closets, election officials were fired and reassigned.

Then it was the absurd proposal of King County Executive Ron Sims that began to demonstrate he had no clue as the depth, seriousness or impact of the problem. Instead at looking at the people in charge, Sims wanted to buy a $23 million building in the Rainier Valley in which to banish his totally dysfunctional elections department.

The building would be the "dream" solution, said an aide to Sims.

Where do these people live? In a cave?

It is hard to think that our county officials, the ones we expect to lead us, were so stupid as to think that buying a building and filling it with misled workers with inept leaders could solve the problem.

Fortunately, the County Council quickly acted rationally and killed this idea.

Sims, though, seems to be in another world. He clings to his elections supervisor with stubborn tenacity. Aide Kurt Triplett says he remains unless he screws up the primary in less than two weeks, or the general in November.

So, if our votes are not counted, lost, forgotten, misplaced or sent to the recycling bin, even shredded, then don't worry. Someone will be fired.

Normally this paper would not back a political opponent's pre-election attempt to make points of such a mess. But Sims' opponent, Republican candidate David Irons said it correctly when he had this comment last week:

"If elected, I will take the steps necessary to rehabilitate the department and restore public trust - steps our current executive is unwilling and unable to take."

Ron Sims, in his handling of the elections snafu, and in some of his other actions, has made it clear is he not in control of the county and needs to find a new line of work.

We no longer have any confidence that Ron Sims can do the job we elected him to do. We are strong backers of David Irons for county executive.