When it's easier to find al-Qaida's top man in Iraq than the guy in charge of King County Elections, well, that's a bit of a problem.

Currently, members of the county council are trying to pass an ordinance that would make county elections all-mail. On Monday they held a forum to hear from public officials and members of the public. However, the man they wanted to hear from the most, King County Elections Director Dean Logan, was not available for grilling.

At first it was reported that he was at an election administrators' conference in Spokane, then that he was working away from the office, then that he was on vacation, and finally that he was at the hearing, it's just that he was sitting behind a big plant and no one could see him.

Logan's absence is giving plenty of fodder to Republicans, who oppose the plan because they feel it will lead to voter fraud, and make Election Day road blocks pointless.

Republican Pete von Reichbauer told the Times, "Maybe we should hold our next hearing in Kitsap County, where he lives, to make it easier for him to attend." This was echoed by Republican Reagan Dunn, "It's pretty clear to me that when major election issues come up, if Dean Logan can be somewhere else, he generally is."

Democrats supporting the proposal fired back with partisan shots of their own. "I think that's a bunch of right-wing blog nonsense...I think what's important is the answers he gives when he appears before the council," said the council's ranking thinker Dow Constantine.

Fellow Democrat Bob Ferguson added, "I have to have confidence that the Elections Department has the resources and staff and the ability to make that change. Right now I'm not sure if I believe that's the case."

Hey Fergs, stick to the script, and try it again. Fellow Democrat Bob Ferguson called Logan's disappearance "a serious lapse in judgment."

Bob, you're making our partisan brain think for itself, so we'll just check back with you later.

Logan has come under fire before, mostly over how that 2004 gubernatorial election was handled, and that completed ballots kept turning up in the darnedest places.

So either Logan is really bad at letting his office know where he is, or he didn’t want anyone to figure out that his department isn't ready to convert to all-mail elections.